As president, Barack Obama has cynically broken promise after promise, often enough that it's hard to believe that his cognitive functioning is so impaired that he ever thought he could keep most of them. He wouldn't, of course, be the only politician to make meaningless pledges to get elected.

Unfortunately, his October 30, 2008 promise to set about "fundamentally transforming the United States of America" is one he has kept. If he is reelected on November 6, 2012, I believe that the transformation from the free republic we have cherished will be irreversible and permanent. And that the country will then be hopelessly on the road to fiscal, social, and political collapse.

He will fundamentally transform America from a society where the majority of people live by the sweat of their brows to one where the majority live off the labors of a shrinking productive class.

He will fundamentally transform America from one where the American dream is a job, home, and family to one where the dream is food stamps, welfare, Obama-phones, and government dependency.

He will fundamentally transform America from a society that strives, however imperfectly, for a color-blind equality to one where race matters in everything from enforcement of voter protection laws, to college admissions, to hiring, to school grades and discipline.

He will fundamentally transform America from a nation that is a beacon for freedom and democracy to one that leads from behind in the world.

He will fundamentally transform America from a country that believes in entrepreneurial efforts and free markets to a controlled economy where central planners make economic decisions for you.

He will fundamentally transform America from a country that rewards success and hard work to one where those who disagree still believe they are entitled to a "fair share" of what those who do have earned.

He will fundamentally transform America from a country that believes in rugged individualism to a caricature of a European socialist dependency, where citizens all belong to interest groups ever demanding more largess from the government.

He will fundamentally transform America from a country where our grandkids have a brighter future to one where they will live in poverty and destitution under the yoke of unpayable debts to fund ever-larger vote-buying schemes from leftist interest groups.

He will fundamentally transform America from a land of plenty to one where the poor cannot drive, heat their homes, or feed their families as they are crushed by energy costs to please environmental interest groups and green crony contributors at photo-op places like Solyndra.

He will fundamentally transform America from a society that strives to eliminate class to one of four classes: wealthy elite liberals, government union bureaucrats, the growing dependent poor, and the shrinking pool of working, productive folk employed in the private sector who are expected to support the other three classes.

He will fundamentally transform America from a society that believes in and defends our culture and values to one where multiculturalism declares equal respect and value for cultures that hang gay people, mutilate the genitals of young girls, stone women for adultery, execute "witches," murder apostates, prohibit education of girls, riot violently against free speech if someone offends them, and murder female relatives over trivial affronts to the family's "honor."

He will fundamentally transform America from one where there exists a balance of power between the states and the federal government, and between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government, to one in which an all-powerful president rules through unaccountable czars and unchecked executive orders.

He will fundamentally transform America from one that believed in life to one where babies are routinely aborted because of their gender or disabilities.

He will fundamentally transform America into a poor imitation of Greece.

He will fundamentally transform America from a society that rewards success and effort to one where everyone gets a trophy for showing up. And if you don't show up, the community organizer will deliver it to your section-eight subsidized door.

He will fundamentally transform America from one where small town values predominate to one locked in the corrupt grip of the Chicago Way.

He will fundamentally transform America from a country which the honored function of the military is to protect the nation and our freedoms to one where the military is the Petri dish for social experimentation. If that costs the lives of troops, well, it's a small price to pay for the liberal elites to have their dreams, because their children don't serve.

He will fundamentally transform America from a powerful nation to one that has to acquiesce in the dominance of corrupt, state-corporatist China over our Asian allies, because their military is more powerful, their economy stronger, and they hold the debt from liberal vote buying in the US and can cut off credit if we stand up to them.

He will fundamentally transform America from a land that welcomes immigrants who want to join our culture, adopt our values, learn our language, and participate in the political, economic, and social life of the nation to one where illegal colonizers are allowed to live off our economy and taxpayers while imposing the failed, corrupt cultures they came from on our people and society.

He will fundamentally transform America from a nation that respects religious freedom to one where religious beliefs must give way to imposed bureaucratic values of secular, leftist elites.

He will fundamentally transform America from a country with a healthcare system where people of means worldwide come for treatment and where doctors and patients made healthcare decisions to one where bureaucrats manage your healthcare decisions and ration and delay care.

He will fundamentally transform America... actually, he already has. Now he wants to make it permanent.

Will you let him?

Date of Obama speech corrected, with thanks to Sharon Rondeau of The Post & Email

Robert A. Hall is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.