Caesar's Coup de Etat

[image: Archs, 2014 JA Van Devender]

Circumstances have prevented any recent "musings" but I am going to force the issue today, simply because I can't not say something.

It appears to me that a bloodless coup has taken place in the United States of America... a coup that has a significant parallel with the assumption of royal power by Julius Caesar in 49 BC.

Caesar's assumption of power was the essential end to the Roman Republic.  From that time on the legislative powers that had heretofore been distributed between the Roman Senate and the Citizen assembly, was consolidated into executive powers of the magistrate, henceforth given the title Caesar.  The manner in which Caesar did this was to recognize where the true source of power lay in the Roman system, the newly professionalized army.  If he had the army he did not need the Senate was his analysis because through the army he could control the treasury and then he could rule without any real constraints other than direct immediate charismatic influence.  

Barak Obama has, it appears, determined that the time is right for a similar transition to occur in the United States of America.  He has similarly recognized that the true power in the United States Government no longer rests upon the legislative branch as it would in a nation governed by laws, but rather in the regulatory power of the various agencies and the army of bureaucrats who oversee them. [see Spike In Regulatory Powers Under Obama]

He has recognized that the laws passed by the legislative branch are not only subject to regulatory implementation, they can be essentially transformed through regulations or, conversely, nullified by administrative inaction.  His most recent and obvious application of these principles is that of imposing new suppressive regulations on the coal industry over the howls of the Senate  including members of his own putative party.  The autonomous ruling mentality has been evidenced across the board in the virtual decriminalizing of marijuana before it was legislatively done so, by his public policy of not enforcing the laws.  Space does not permit a full fledged review of all the instances that could be referenced but even the most out of touch resident in this country can sense the continental shift in governing practice that has transpired.

And last night I heard a member of the House of Representatives, express outrage at this circumstance, and then, with a straight face say "We can't do anything about it.  We can't impeach him."  

The first thing wrong with this statement is that "we can't do anything about it" and the second thing wrong is to imply that "impeaching" is the only option.

There is another historical precedent  for this kind of situation.  In 1215 the feudal barons of England forced King John to sign the Magna Carta and the resulting power balancing led, in time, to the formation of the Parliament with the express power of the purse.  Charles II in the 1600's sought to rule in a similar fashion to Obama and the result was that parliament cut off his source of power by defunding his programs.

Caesar had control of the purse... alot of it was his own wealth but he also had control of the treasury.  Obama has control of the bureaucrats but they work for pay.  The House of Representatives can shut down any government agency, at will, by defunding it.  They can withold funding until the regulatory practices are forced back into conformity with duly enacted legislation as it was passed.  They can eliminate the corruption that infests many of these agencies such that we do see shameful video's of parties and other such abuses paid for by government funds.

This coup is grounded on an army of bureaucrats who have given allegiance to the commander and chief and who are seemingly willing to go along with his agenda.  

Congress can and congress must act to reverse this situation and in this next two years should force a constitutional crisis by selective defunding of some regulatory agencies and by dramatic curtailing of funding for others.

Every elgible citizen of the United States should require the elections that will happen this year to hinge on candidates who are willing to force this issue.

I don't think it can be reversed if it is not done now.  The next president, whatever his party, will inherit an office with dramatically new powers and, more importantly, a mind-set that this is the way that the country is to be governed hence forth.  As Caesar sterilized the Senate by changing the way the ordinary population viewed the Roman government, so Obama is changing the way the ordinary citizen in the US views how the government "works."  

Once this Rubicon is crossed it will be virtually impossible for the outcome to be reversed.

It is time to tell the candidates for legislative seats in the Congress of the United States of America, that they either commit themselves to forcing this issue or they will not be elected... no matter where they stand on other issues.

It is just that serious... in my humble opinion.

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