Obama’s not so radical
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Editor,
The recent letter to the editor by Mimi and Irv Milheim claims that the Obama Administration “has destroyed the balance of power by circumventing Congress through hundreds of executive orders.” First of all, who wouldn’t want to circumvent such an intransigent Congress? Second, instead of writing “hundreds” of executive orders, they should have said 135, since that’s the actual number, which is not inordinate for a president. Moreover, the nature of many of the executive orders appears well intentioned. The list includes numerous sanctions against Iran, Syria, Somalia and North Korea, preventing violence against women and girls globally, establishing a council on strong cities and communities, strengthening Native American colleges, and perhaps most “chilling” of all, increasing employment possibilities for veterans and people with disabilities.
I am by no means an ardent Obama supporter, as I feel he’s been an unremarkable president thus far. Yet, the man suffers from a severe identity crisis. People like the Milheims want to paint our president as a Marxist-Socialist-Communist-Muslim that gleefully urinates on the Constitution. The reality is Obama has been a centrist, and in trying to placate both Republicans and Democrats, he has placated almost no one. If he was really a radical liberal he would have pushed harder for the single-payer system, or at the very least, a public option. He would have ended the war in Afghanistan rather than sending another 30,000 troops; he would have closed Guantanamo Bay; he would have repealed No Child Left Behind; he would have restricted, rather than expanded, gun rights.
The Milheims don’t have to compromise with Democrats, but they should at least consider compromising with reality and avoiding inane logical fallacies like reducto ad Hitlerum. The Obama Administration has unarguably had its failings, including the Fast and Furious program, but people should at least have the common courtesy to regard him like the moderate Democrat he is, rather than as a power-hungry potentate hell-bent on the destruction of mom and pop.
Mike Schwabenbauer
Polson
