Creeping Authoritarianism

            I came across this interesting quote from James Madison the other day: "There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by silent and gradual encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." How perfectly this mirrors what is going on today with "Obama's creeping authoritarianism," a phrase coined by the Wall Street Journal's Dan Henninger.  It amazes me that Madison could foresee this sort of thing happening more than 200 years after the drafting of our Constitution.

            If President Obama is ever impeached, it will be for his deliberate and repeated violation of his oath of office to preserve, defend, and protect the Constitution of the United States.  The evidence is all around us.  Sometimes it is blatant and arrogant as when he said, "So where I can act on my own, I'm going to act on my own.  I won't wait for Congress," and, "We're going to do everything we can...with or without Congress."  In other words, Obama intends to use his executive authority to make his own law.
            We have already seen this with the president's multiple executive orders and other decisions to bypass laws enacted by Congress, the most recent examples of which are his postponement  of ObamaCare's employer mandate and his use of taxpayer funds to subsidize health insurance costs for Congressmen and their aides.  Both actions were violations of specific provisions of the law, a law he signed.   Oh, well.  Since ObamaCare is his baby, I guess that means he can do whatever he wants, regardless of what the law says.  But where in our Constitution does it say that the President of the United States is not obligated to execute the law when he doesn't feel like it?
            At other times Obama uses his henchmen to do his dirty work.  Remember when Eric Holder made up his own version of the Voting Rights Act or when Janet Napolitano decided not to enforce immigration law? 
            Worst of all, though, are the "silent and gradual encroachments" by Obama lackeys in the EPA, the Energy Department, the NLRB, the IRS and others.  They not only make and impose their own laws in the form of regulations, they also act as judge and jury when their regulations are not obeyed.         
            What we're talking about here is  the importance the Constitution places on the separation of powers. If the president ignores Congress and makes his own laws; if he picks and chooses which laws he will execute;  if he does not abide by Supreme Court decisions, then he simply is not preserving, defending and protecting the Constitution. That is the very definition of authoritarianism.  It is also the path to despotism.  And that, in my view, is an impeachable offense.