Barack Obama: A different kind of Democrat?

[Perd Hapley]

This short article says, among other things, that the Obama Democrats don't care what policy their candidates propose, or what they actually pass into law, as long as they can be the ones in charge of it. Which fits with the left's long-standing strategy (or just tendency) to have their bureaucrats in place, regardless of who's elected to office from one decade to the next.

Barack Obama isn’t a policy guy; he’s a personnel guy. An underappreciated aspect of Barack Obama’s politics is that he has been trying to convert the Democratic party from a party that lives in Congress to a party that lives in the White House. The Democrats owned Congress, and especially the House of Representatives, in the postwar era, with unbroken control of the speakership from 1955 to 1995... That version of the Democratic party was a lawmaking party. (It made a lot of bad laws.) Barack Obama’s Democratic party, the one he is giving birth to, is a different animal. He didn’t give a hoot what was in his signature health-care law — just so long as it empowered him to start putting his people in positions to make health-care decisions. His patron saint is Roy Cohn, who proclaimed the gospel “Don’t tell me what the law is. Tell me who the judge is.” Barack Obama doesn’t want to write laws — he wants to appoint judges. He doesn’t want finely crafted legislation — he wants “The secretary shall issue.”

For conservatives, policy matters above all: You can be Rick Perry or a Marco Rubio or a Scott Walker, but if you deviate from the true path on a single issue, we’ll cast you into the outer darkness as a phony conservative. Progressives invert that: Personnel is what really counts. They operate on the assumption (which turns out to be well founded) that as long as they get their people into positions of power, they’re going to get their way most of the time when it really counts. That’s why Barack Obama could run for the presidency to the right of Dick Cheney on gay marriage — twice, while citing the Bible for justification — without hearing a peep. And it’s why he could subsequently name to the Supreme Court Elena Kagan, who insisted that “there is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage.” When the time came, Obama’s people were going to give Obama’s people what Obama’s people wanted, and everybody knew it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425752/obama-2016-joe-biden-hillary-clinton

[brimic]

Personnel makes all the difference.
Yep.
Liberals figured out a long time ago to stack courts at all levels with their ilk.

In WI, we have something called the 'Government Accountability Board' (Lolz) which is stacked with liberal party hacks.
If you haven't read up on the WI 'Jon Doe' investigation, please do so. It was a fishing expedition against conservatives that involved late night SWAT raids, gag orders, and destruction of reputations- with not a single charge being brought against anyone. The communist party operatives on the GAB and in the Milwaukee DA's office were behind it all. The head of the GAB was also in direct communication with Lois Lerner and the Obama administration- but its not known whether he was looking for ways to smear Walker or was taking marching orders.

Conservatives are trying to dismantle the GAB and replace it with something else. The democrats are screaming bloody  murder over it.

Having personnel in the right places is everything to the left.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

More proof our current system is *expletive deleted*ed. I have preached it to the choir for years. The government has grown into a self sustaining monster, and I am not referring to the elected idiots.

[Jocassee]

More proof our current system is *expletive deleted*ed. I have preached it to the choir for years. The government has grown into a self sustaining monster, and I am not referring to the elected idiots.

Pretty much this.

I have thoughts on this, but rather than go on an angry rant, I'll encourage the APS tribe to buy water, beans, and bullets.

[Scout26]

Which is why the budgeting process needs to done with a chainsaw.  Eliminate entire departments.  

Education - Completely gone
Energy - Nuke stuff back to DOD,  Labs to Various Universities and DOD
VA  (Put part under DOD, sell the hospitals and give disabled Vet's "Insurance cards" good at any Dr or Hospital in the US)
DHS (Put Customs/ICE and the USCG back under Treasury, kill everything else)
Agriculture - Put USDA food inspections under Treasury, kill the rest
Commerce - kill it all except Census, which goes to AG
Labor - Labor Stats can be complied by Treasury, kill everything else
HUD - Detcord
HHS - Social Security under Treasury,. everything else get cut.
Interior - National Parks, etc get turned over to the states.
EPA - Kill, responsibilities go to the states.  

Then the next year get really serious about making cuts....

[vaskidmark]

Since before G*d finalized the decision to start the creation project, the bureaucrats have been the ones in charge.

Write the laws.  Write the policies.  Who do you think is going to write the regulations that administer and operate those things?

Piss off a secretary and your personal life will become a living hell.  You can''t piss off a bureaucrat because you do't know which one to try and deal with.

When I was knee-high to a policy and procedures manual I wanted to grow up to be a bureaucrat.  When the Dept of Corrections employed me I became one, and could (and did        ) literally move  the direction of the operation of the agency.

People in the Effalump Party do not understand this and have never groomed bureaucrats.  The Dorkocrat Party has stacked every desk from the Deputy Assistant Director on down to the guy who pushes the mail cart.

stay safe.

[Blakenzy]

So "we don't care what the law says, so long as we control the people that are in charge of applying the law"

[Perd Hapley]

So "we don't care what the law says, so long as we control the people that are in charge of applying the law"

Yeah.


On the bureaucrats, doesn't that kind of work both attract the more statistly-inclined, and encourage statistism (yes, statistism)?

[vaskidmark]

Yeah.


On the bureaucrats, doesn't that kind of work both attract the more statistly-inclined, and encourage statistism (yes, statistism)?

Yes.  Unless one is of a particularly evil bent of mind.

stay safe.

[HankB]

Which is why the budgeting process needs to done with a chainsaw.  Eliminate entire departments.  

Education - Completely gone
Energy - Nuke stuff back to DOD,  Labs to Various Universities and DOD
VA  (Put part under DOD, sell the hospitals and give disabled Vet's "Insurance cards" good at any Dr or Hospital in the US)
DHS (Put Customs/ICE and the USCG back under Treasury, kill everything else)
Agriculture - Put USDA food inspections under Treasury, kill the rest
Commerce - kill it all except Census, which goes to AG
Labor - Labor Stats can be complied by Treasury, kill everything else
HUD - Detcord
HHS - Social Security under Treasury,. everything else get cut.
Interior - National Parks, etc get turned over to the states.
EPA - Kill, responsibilities go to the states.  

Then the next year get really serious about making cuts....

I'm glad to see you're taking your time and not rushing things too much - but may I suggest some more immediate remedial action in regard to the BATmen, the ObamaPhone program, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs?

Having said that, I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Scout26]

Isn't the BATFE under DHS? (goes and looks).  Hmmm, they are under Justice.  Or should I say "were".  I apologize for missing them.  I thought they were in DHS and would get eliminated there.  They can run, but can't hide.  

Obamaphone and BIA, I'm pretty sure both in one of the Dept;'s that put down like the rabid dogs they are.


But more to the OP.  How many bureaucrats has Obama fired?  I know he's been "Mad", "Angry", "Upset", and "Disappointed" on several occasions when they have *expletive deleted*ed the dog (Obamacare rollout, VA Scandals, IRS scandals, Secret Service Scandals, et al), yet no one seems to pay the price, hardly anyone gets thrown under the bus.  Obama or his press person comes out, says he's mad about X and then suddenly X goes away as an issue because Obama's mad and that's that.   But there is no consequence of failure in Washington.   Except upwards or at worst a real nice .gov pension for the rest of your life (*cough* Lois Lerner *cough*).  

The fact that we haven't gone to DC and put a bunch of these *expletive deleted*s up against the wall shows the tremendous amount of restraint the American people have...

[RocketMan]

The fact that we haven't gone to DC and put a bunch of these *expletive deleted*s up against the wall shows the tremendous amount of restraint the American people have...

Actually, it shows how content the American people are with the status quo.

[brimic]

Actually, it shows how content the American people are with the status quo.

Or are completely powerless to do anything about it while tyranny is still tolerable.