A broad majority of Americans are convinced the United States is in decline. The first years of the early twenty first century provide a stunning contrast to the optimistic, can-do attitude of the postwar years in which the Baby Boomer generation was raised.
- 62% of Americans believe the United States is in decline.
- 76% of Republicans, 64% of Independents, and 43% of Democrats believe this despite the "hope and change" promised by the Obama administration.
- 58% of the young and 57% of the old believe America is on a downward slide.
- 73% of Americans believe Washington has too much power.
These numbers reflect a total repudiation of the progressive worldview.
Americans don't have confidence in the federal government to improve their lives. They don't believe Washington technocrats and bureaucrats should be empowered to solve our national problems. They don't believe Congress is doing its job. They don't even believe Congress is willing to listen to them anymore.
Who can blame them?
Consider the following recent news items:
1.) The Obama administration is searching for a way to pass a stealth amnesty without the authorization of Congress. Having failed to pass "comprehensive immigration reform," the federal government has decided to impose its will on the public anyway.
Who cares about annoying federal statutes or antiquated notions like consent of the governed? The Obama administration picks and chooses which laws to enforce on the basis of the political advantage it accrues to the Democratic Party.
In the absence of a clear legal mandate, the Obama administration simply exercises its royal prerogative and dictates public policy on the basis of its own authority, flagrantly violating the separation of powers inherent in the Constitution.
2.) The twisted logic of Judge Bolton's decision has now been exposed to public view. The inconveniences imposed on "legal aliens" are laughable. The Obama administration doesn't want the law enforced and persuaded a Clinton appointed Democratic political hack to neuter it.
3.) 72% of Americans (with good reason) do not believe the federal government is willing to enforce our immigration laws.
4.) Eric Holder's Justice Department issued a recent statement that essentially said "sanctuary cities" are fine. A city can defy federal law if doing so works to the political advantage of the Obama administration. On the other hand, a state can be sued in federal court for enforcing federal law.
The federal government doesn't want Arizona to enforce this particular federal law, which it dislikes, but requires Arizona on other states to enforce all the other federal laws. This makes a mockery out the rule of law.
5.) The Obama administration recently signed the Trial Law and Order act. This laws allows tribal police officers to enforce federal law on Indian reservations. Indian tribes are given the power to enforce federal law, but not state officers.
Indian reservations even have the power to enforce federal law "whether or not the offender is an Indian." In this case, the Obama administration has completely dropped its faux opposition to racial profiling.
6.) You're probably thinking it couldn't possibly get worse.
The sympathies of the Obama administration are wholly with illegal aliens over native citizens, with tax consumers over taxpayers, with the "protected classes" of citizens over the unprotected, and with lawbreakers over the law abiding.
Now the Obama administration is pushing to neuter the drug laws and appoint leftwing activists to the Supreme Court for it can stuff the voting rolls with as many felons and criminals as possible. This also works to the advantage of the Democratic Party.
A common thread runs through all these stories: the American people are no longer governed by the Constitution or laws, but by an entrenched political class that will flaunt, ignore, pick and chose, and make up laws that suit its political and material interests.
Nancy Pelosi promised to create "the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history," a Congress which turned out to be riddled with corruption, which doesn't even bother to pretend to represent the American people anymore.
Americans are unlikely to put up with being arrogantly treated like subjects for long. George W. Bush received a "thumping" in 2006, but Democrats are inviting a reckoning in 2010.
