No Equivalence

            A reader reacted to my recent post on the obstructionism of Congressional Democrats with this question: “Wasn’t GOP obstruction what happened for the last eight years with Obama?”  Here is my response.

            First, the Republican Senate did not prevent Obama from installing his Cabinet with the kind of obstruction and delaying tactics we’ve seen from the Democrats since the election. Second, the opposition from Republican supporters was never marked by the kind of violence we see today among protesters. Third, when Obama enjoyed a 60-vote majority in the Senate during his first two years in office, he was able to put through legislation like ObamaCare, while Republicans were powerless to prevent it. Fourth, as much as Republicans opposed Obama’s policies in Congress, their own proposals were repeatedly thwarted by Harry Reed; today’s Congressional Democrats obstruct, but offer no proposals of their own. Fifth, when Obama was frustrated by a failure of Congress to pass legislation he favored, he turned to executive orders, many of which were unconstitutional and got reversed by the courts.

             Equivalence? Hardly.