Respect for the American people -- AWOL in the Obama presidency

By Michael Bresciani

Bill O'Reilly was heard on the factor recently parroting the all too familiar adage about always "respecting the office of the President even if you don't necessarily respect the president." The discussion was about Obama's heated reply to the outbursts of one Texas based TV reporter who couldn't wait to speak until the question and answer period of the meeting took place. Politico has labeled the incident as — 'The outburst heard round the world.'

Insult was added to injury when in the same week as the famous outburst, two other Obama appointees also inserted their worst into the public record by saying not just the ridiculous, but what to some would qualify as downright undignified and disrespectful to the Congress, the Constitution and virtually every American.

Former New Jersey EPA head and Obama appointee to the nation's Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson has raised the question of John Q. Public's ability to read above the fifth grade level. She said "In accordance with the law, we moved forward with sensible, cost effective steps at the federal level on climate, using the Clean Air Act." And [sic] I would have a second sentence — see, I can't write headlines! But it would be something like, "The progress at state and local levels, combined with the federal level, does not obviate the need" — you can't use obviate, it's above fifth-grade level!"

This week and for the past eighteen months Attorney General Eric Holder has repelled the Congressional Committee with a barrage of obfuscation and smokescreens and then warned the congress in a defiantly undignified flip off to that entire body, that he has "no intention of resigning." In the minds of Americans who now see the Attorney General as a smear against justice, are thoughts that Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry had no chance to tell the same Congressional Committee that he had "no intention of dying."

Nobody really likes a complainer especially when it is endless chronic dissatisfaction without any credence or foundation. Mr. Obama's critics have long since risen above the low place of the inveterate complainer. The endless list of indignities and disrespect to American traditions, laws and conventions is too much a part of the Obama legacy to hide, quash or deny.

The short list includes disrespect for DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), private sector businesses and entrepreneurs, religion (attacks on Catholics), attacks on dignity and American protocol (bowing to a Saudi king) A blast against doctors, insurance companies and the public with a burgeoning healthcare bill most don't want. The social shock of being whacked with a giant club labeled "the gay agenda,' and last but not least, the circumventing of the Congress with endless executive orders (900 to date).

Now the Congress and lawful legislative process has been ignored for a move that no American left with a mere pint of blood and a single brain cell does not see as a political move to bolster a shaky re-election bid. The announcement to give amnesty to illegal immigrants is a serious and disrespectful blow to those trying to enter the country legally. It is insulting to states with overburdened welfare and education systems and their respective governors. Why haven't we considered breaking open all our jails and prisons to find those offenders who have only one non-violent felony on their records and giving our own citizens some of that easy amnesty?

We heard Mr. Obama swear he would defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic at his inauguration. But we also know that, to constantly cast all that is foreign, against all that is domestic, is to create a new enemy to the constitution. It is not a new enemy, but one that has always been known and named as — 'the enemy within.'

J. J. Jackson of 'The Land of the Free' website said "I hear people in certain sectors of the economy, like the Natural Gas industry, glow about how Obama is "for" them because he is against their competitors (i.e. coal and oil). Most often, I hear about how Obama is "for" the little guy because he is out to sock it to the vile rich. Yet, when you actually look at what Obama does, you see that he is not really "for" anyone of these people. As I said, he is just out "for" himself."

Buying voting blocs through executive orders and promising happier days in Xanadu is the kind of callous disrespect that has been ongoing, unabated, in this administration for nearly four years. It would be easy to say that Mr. Obama is taking on the pathology of the megalomaniac, but pragmatism and reason call for an answer to the malady rather than just railing against it. To get to the nature of the festering we need to discover the root of the problem and work from that point outward. That would bring us full circle to the question of respecting the office even if we don't have so much respect for the office holder. How far can we stretch this bad philosophy to cover a failing and amateurish presidency?

In the New International Version of the Bible we see that Paul addressed the subject of respect for leaders in part when he said, "Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor." (Ro 13: 7) Christian ministers like to emphasize the respect angle of this passage, but all too often ignore the very important phrase "Give to everyone what you owe them."

When we owe something it is safe to assume that we received something, a product, a service, a loan, a license, a passage or something of value. This is why most Americans will tell you that they usually don't load respect on anyone unless it has been earned. Here is where we see that regardless of how many times O'Reilly raises the 'respect for the office' thing and regardless of Lisa Jackson's allusion to a nearly illiterate citizenry, we all know what we have seen, read, and witnessed. The bottom line is we are not getting much respect and very few Americans are willing to accept a bill from the Obama White House marked accounts receivable.

We are only a few months away from our chance to deal with the kind of disrespect we have endured. It is that revered and oft visited quiet and private little space we call — the voting booth. It is there we will voice our refusal to endure anymore disrespect and the dissolution of what may be left to our dignity as a nation.

This writer is a firm believer that Mr. Obama has exhibited many behaviors that seem foreign to the American way of life and traditions. The sum total of those behaviors indicates to me that something in his experience or his personality is missing. I long ago came to the conclusion that he, Mr. Obama, simply does not love this country the way our previous presidents have. Adding to that is a streak of hidden motives and a plethora of lies that are now a matter of public record. The words of author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the author of Crime and Punishment seem to speak directly to my view of Mr. Obama's condition.

In his novel The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky penned these telling words. "The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love."

My only question is; why doesn't someone who Mr. Obama really respects tell these telling words to the President for the rest of us.

We will always respect the office of the president but on this two way street, in these days, we see that all men are not created equal. We see the president's respect for the environmentalists, the gays, and the immigrants. But this is a nation of 350 million and from the learned statesmen to those struggling to read at a fifth grade level we don't feel or see the respect for our citizens.

© Michael Bresciani