If You’re Freaking Out Over Donald Trump’s Presidential Powers, Thank a Liberal!
10th January 2017
One of the things that Streep, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention last summer in support of Hillary Clinton, didn’t address, though, is the way in which Barack Obama has handed Trump vast powers as president. There’s no question that Obama worked overtime to arrogate more power to the presidency over the past eight years, using all sorts of unilateral action to get shit done. Even Yellow Dog Democrats will grant as much when it comes to civil liberties abuses (remember Bam’s “secret kill list”?) and waging war (still waiting on his request to Congress under the War Powers Act to sanction Libya, which turned out so well). Obama was on the losing end of a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling about abusing recess-appointment powers and his moves on immigration law suffered a similar fate as well. In all sorts of ways, the plain fact is that, like George W. Bush before, Obama was ready to grab as much power as he could. And whatever presidential precedents he established will now be sitting in Oval Office, waiting for the arrival of Donald Trump.