Who's Your Dictator?

I thought that was a catchy title. But, I am going to pose this question...Is the United States close to becoming a dictatorship under Barack Obama? Certainly Presidents have overstepped their bounds before...Andrew Jackson comes to mind. However, Barack Obama seems to be taking this to an extreme.

First, I'd like to cite 2 quotes from a speech he gave today announcing his nominee for Surgeon General. Obama is talking about Health Care Reform.

"Don't bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen,"

"I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone," the president said. "Inaction is not an option."

Some may say that those 2 quotes are "showing leadership." To me it sounds bullyish. However you slice it, members of Congress, including Democrats, have serious reservations about the President's Health Care Reform Plan. Remember, they don't need Republicans to get this done.

The people of this country elected their representatives to do a job, and for the first time since Obama got elected they are doing it. They are taking a critical look at something the President is proposing and saying that they don't like everything in there. But, rather than try to work with these members of his own party, Obama is acting like the school yard bully and putting people on notice.

The 2nd point that I've been meaning to address, and this goes more to the point of whether or not we are becoming a Dictatorship, is all these czars President Obama has been appointing. The number I've seen is 34 czars. For those of you who don't know, the President can appoint these czars without Constitutionally required Congressional approval and they report directly to him. Often, they have as much or more power than Cabinet level positions.

By appointing czars, Obama is able to more quickly enact sweeping changes at the federal level, because he doesn't have to go through the normal red tape. While I despise the overgrown government, the bureaucracy does serve one purpose...it stops the government from overreaching too quickly. Obama has taken a privilege that Presidents typically use for 4-5 positions and extended it to everything from a car czar to an executive pay czar. Obama has essentially set up a parallel government beholden to no one but him.

Look, I really don't know what Obama's plan is with this. I have my suspicions, but I don't want to sound too conspiratorial. What I do know is this...Obama only won 53% of the vote, yet he's operating like he won 75% of the vote. He's arrogant and I think he believes the American people will let him get away with whatever he wants, just because he sounds good when he asks for it. As Americans we need to send Obama a message. To do this, we need to call our Senators and Representatives when we don't support what they are doing and let them know how we feel. In 2010 and then 2012, we need to send a message with our vote. So far, the U.S. is not a Dictatorship, and it's up to us to keep it that way.