Thursday, March 5, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Obama vs. The People
Here’s some encouraging news. The American people are paying attention to what is going on around the world, and they are very concerned about the course of President Obama’s negotiations with Iran.
While the administration continues to downplay the danger from the Islamic Republic of Iran, insisting we can reason with them, the public knows better. It doesn’t trust Iran and a significant majority is willing to use force to stop the mullahs from getting nuclear weapons.
Here are some key findings from a new Fox News poll:
- 55% believe it would be a “disaster” if Iran develops the “capability to use nuclear weapons.”
- 57% of voters believe U.S. policy “has not been aggressive enough in trying to get Iran to stop building a nuclear weapons program.” Only seven percent believes we have been “too aggressive.”
- 59% of voters think Obama is a weak negotiator.
- 65% of voters support military action to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Only 28% oppose it.Now, here’s a very important point: During his address before Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu focused on two major problems with Obama’s proposed deal. One of which allows “virtually all the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program [to] automatically expire in about a decade,” Netanyahu warned.That is not something the prime minister is making up. This “ten year freeze” is central to Obama’s deal. If Iran pauses its nuclear program for ten years, Obama will lift sanctions, and he seems to think this is a good idea.The Fox poll found that 84% of voters — 84% — “think it’s a bad idea to allow Iran to get nuclear weapons 10 years from now in return for agreeing it won’t obtain nukes before then.”The American people understand what is at stake. Unfortunately, we have an ideologue in the White House who thinks the world’s problems are partly our fault.
Obama started his administration by sending secret letters to the ayatollah. He has repeatedly reached out to Iran ever since, even though we have evidence that it is already cheating.
The Keystone Lesson
What more can we say that hasn’t already been said about the Keystone pipeline? This battle has gone on for six and a half years. Last week President Obama vetoed bi-partisan legislation authorizing construction of the pipeline. Yesterday the Senate failed to override his veto on a 62-to-37 vote.
The veto is not the big story. The big story is that only 62 senators were willing to override the veto. Every American politician should want to increase America’s energy supply from a friendly ally. But not anymore.
Whether it’s the Keystone pipeline or stopping Obama’s executive amnesty, liberal senators are unwilling to defend their constitutional obligations and more interested in advancing a radical left-wing agenda at any cost.
Here’s something else to keep in mind. While it’s a double-edged sword (hurting our domestic oil industry), low oil prices are hurting Iran and Russia. Obama just passed up a great opportunity to exert even more strategic leverage over our enemies.
In addition, he is misleading us. He keeps insisting that Keystone’s oil will go overseas and benefit other countries, not America. He’s just flat wrong. The Washington Post Fact Checker gave Obama Four Pinocchios for his whopper that Keystone’s oil “bypasses the U.S.”
State Stands For Marriage
The Alabama State Supreme Court yesterday ordered county probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The justices ruled 7-to-1 that the county judges were bound to follow the state’s voter-approved marriage amendment. They declared:
“Throughout the entirety of its history, Alabama has chosen the traditional definition of marriage. Some other states, like New York, have more recently chosen the new definition. The United States Constitution does not require one definition or the other. . .”That fact does not change simply because the new definition of marriage has gained ascendancy in certain quarters of the country, even if one of those quarters is the federal judiciary. . . .
“Alabama law allows for ‘marriage’ only between one man and one woman. Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to this law. Nothing in the United States Constitution alters or overrides this duty.”
The Alabama justices got it right. And, of course, they will come under tremendous attack now, but they are raising a fundamental point. We are losing the ability of our elected officials and of the people to determine fundamental issues. How did we get in this position — where unelected judges can override common sense? What is happening to the concept of “the consent of the governed”?There were important hearings before Supreme Court yesterday and everyone was trying to parse Justice Anthony Kennedy because he is the swing vote on a divided court. The people of Alabama don’t want Justice Kennedy running America or defining marriage for their state.
This kind of judicial supremacy is something the Founding Fathers never intended. Significant religious liberty cases are emerging in the months and years ahead. It is not at all clear we will prevail.
Just like Obama’s executive amnesty, the judiciary has overreached and infringed on the authority of the legislative branch — the people’s representatives. If our votes matter, if our constitutional republic means anything, this abuse of power must stop.
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