Editorial

Americans Repudiate Obama, Finally

At an address last month at Northwestern University, President Barack Obama gave his critics a present and the voters a unique opportunity, one they certainly seized.

“I am not on the ballot this fall … but make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them,” said the president in words that would come back to haunt him, apparently referring to everything from his administration’s foreign policy (whatever that is) to Obamacare.

With those words, Obama made the election all about him — not the Democrats who have faithfully carried his water for six years, but him. And in many ways, the voters made it all about him as well. By giving the Republicans full control of the House and Senate and handing the Democrats one of their worst defeats in decades, the voters spoke loudly, and what they said was that this president is not a leader and his administration is failing the country.

Indeed, from the government’s ill-fated takeover of what most consider the best healthcare system in the world to its policies that allow illegal aliens to have more and better benefits and healthcare than U.S. veterans, the Obama presidency has been a disaster, and the voters finally, and thankfully, acknowledged this on election night with a stern repudiation.

On Nov. 4, Americans rejected Obama’s policies, which have left so many of America’s middle class and poor worse off now than they were six years ago and this nation going backward, not forward, on a changing global stage.

The message was sent, loud and clear, that progressive liberalism is certainly not the answer. Rewarding the takers (those staying home taking a government handout while fully capable of working) over the givers (those who go to work every day, pay taxes, and balance a family budget with no expectation of a government handout) has no sustainable path in a free-market economy.

But it’s not just the substance of this president and his administration (or the lack thereof) that clearly rankled voters. It’s also the arrogant style.

It’s best summed up by presidential historian Jonathan Turley, who said, “Barack Obama is really the president Richard Nixon always wanted to be … he’s been allowed to act unilaterally in a way we’ve fought for decades.” He’s right. From actions that most see as ordering the IRS audits of conservative groups for political purposes to tapping the phones of journalists (and untold others) and monitoring their e-mails, to allowing illegal aliens to step in front of the line and grab jobs from U.S. citizens through executive amnesty, to ignoring the U.S. Constitution, this administration has embarked on an attack against everything America stands for.

And when it comes to foreign policy, well, this administration doesn’t have one — or at least one that works. The infamous Hillary Clinton ‘reset button’ with Russia has reset relations back to Cold War status. Meanwhile, the Arab Spring has turned into the Arab Fail, with Muslim extremists taking control of Libya and many parts of Syria and Iraq, forcing our hand into fighting a new foe that this administration allowed to take hold: ISIS.

When the president told reporters in early September that “we don’t have a strategy yet,” he was referring specifically to ISIS, but he might as well have been talking about his foreign policy since he was elected. The world is on fire, and it is a direct result of the greatest power leading from behind on virtually every major world issue.

As the president said in 2009, just after he was swept into office, elections have consequences. In his post-election news conference just two weeks ago, our so-called chief executive must have forgotten that phrase he so triumphantly uttered. The hubris, arrogance, and ineptness that has characterized this administration was indeed a sight to behold as Obama so indigently dismissed what had just happened the night before. It was inarguably one of the worst Democratic landslides in recent memory, and the president was in total denial.

It is our hope that the November election results will remind the president that the consequence of this election is to change course. Yes, elections do have consequences.