How Obama vs the Lawsuit Becomes Obama vs the Empty Suit
Read Time:5 Minute, 21 Second
There were three of us. One was a gentleman I took to be a little older than me, although I am now at an age where such a comparison has become hard to judge, and there was a young girl, a high school student. We were to perform a reading from Exodus. Moses encounters the burning bush.
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We had only a few minutes to prepare. We sat together at a table and read our parts aloud to each other. I was a sort of narrator, reading the parts of scripture that were not in quotes. I remember that he was Moses.
I wanted to read my part with a sort of calm authority I associate with John Huston late in his career when he turned to acting. I felt the older fellow was a little too dramatic. I hoped he would dial it back a bit.
The girl spoke her part. She was hesitant, stumbling over the word “taskmaster.” I asked if she knew what it meant and she asked me to explain. I told her as best I could about slaves and beatings and forcing those working hard to work harder.“I guess you could say a taskmaster was paid to be mean.”
She nodded and repeated, “paid to be mean.”
Others were in the large meeting room by then. The three of us sat in silence, reading our parts to ourselves. When we were called forward and introduced, I was separated from the other two by a large supporting column. That seemed natural. They were quoting and I was narrating.
The older man did speak less dramatically, more naturally. He was a pretty good Moses. Quite credible. I thought I did my John Huston competently enough.
I could not see the girl as she spoke. The column was in the way. Her words were firm and strong, and she spoke as the voice of God. She began. “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings.”
Later, the three of us had a chance to talk for a few minutes. We asked her what school she attended and where she might continue in college. She told us and then added, “if they don’t deport me by then.”
I don’t know what I would have expected. An accent, maybe? Some other cultural difference? She had been brought to America as a baby and St. Louis County was the only home she had ever known. She was an American.
I asked if she was in any immediate danger of being taken. No, she had a card allowing her to stay for the next few months. Then another hearing was scheduled, one of many she went through over time.
I thought of her as I read about Congress last week. Conservatives were irritated. Liberals were gleeful. Republicans were all over the place.
The lawsuit John Boehner was filing, the one voted on by House Republicans, accused President Obama of using Executive Orders in place of legislation. They didn’t like his delaying parts of Obamacare to give employers more time to comply.
Then Republicans went on to disagree on just how to get tough against refugee children. They failed the first couple of times to pass legislation on the influx of kids trying to escape gang related death in South America. The administration needs to finance hearings under laws passed during the Bush administration. Children who are in actual danger have a legal right to stay.
Republicans couldn’t get enough votes to pass a bill dealing with the kids. John Boehner and other Republican leaders issued a statement shifting responsibility to President Obama. They demanded that he use his executive authority, since Congress couldn’t act.
Conservative newsmakers were dismayed. Some wanted the US to get crazy tough with the kids. Ann Coulter suggested the government take the same approach with the children running away from violence that Israel was taking with Hamas. Actually, she was functioning as an echo. A spokesman for the Ku Klux Klan had, a few hours before, already advocated a shoot-to-kill policy against the kids.
Charles Krauthammer spoke for many in expressing his own disappointment on another count.
It is ridiculous to sue the president on a Wednesday because he oversteps the law, as he has done a dozen times illegally and unconstitutionally, and then on a Thursday say that he should overstep the law, contradict the law that passed in 2008 and deal with this himself.
– Charles Krauthammer, July 31, 2014
It did look silly and non-conservatives had some fun with it. It accentuated the foolishness of suing the President over actions the authority for which the law provided him. The fact that the administration does not have funding for judges and hearings, in accord with what law requires, made Republicans look like they were taking both sides against themselves.
On Friday, House Republicans worked into the wee hours. They finally passed legislation whittled down to a fraction of what was intended to deal with the border problem.
Anti-immigrant Congressional Representatives Michele Bachmann and Steve King proudly tweeted photos of themselves working together to approve language they had demanded.
Inserted into the final Republican version were provisions that would immediately force the refugee kids back to the violence they had fled; that would cause the investigation into anyone who volunteered to take the children in, feeding and sheltering them; and that would track down all other children who had been transported here years ago as babies, kids who had grown up here, and take them right away to countries they knew only from textbooks.
I know there is humor to be had in Republicans needing approval from extremists for extremist legislation, and it can seem funny that conservatives demand that President Obama issue executive orders exactly one day after filing suit against him for issuing executive orders.
Obama vs the Republican Lawsuit becomes Obama vs the Empty Suit.
But, as I think of that high school girl from last year, it’s hard for me to dwell on the humor.
She did read very well, as the Lord spoke about the people of ancient times, the ones who suffered.
And the ones who were paid to be mean.
This article is a collaboration between MadMikesAmerica and FairandUnbalanced.com.
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At times like this I’m so glad I live in England – apart from the bloody European Union of course… 😉
Thoughtful comments. Thank you.
Bill Formby makes me think of earlier struggles.
Just what is the true foundation of the country is a controversy that goes back to the beginning, I suppose. Stephan Douglas argued that the Constitution forms the structure and body of the country. Abraham Lincoln countered that the Declaration of Independence provides the breath and spirit, bringing life to that structure. Without that spirit we have only legalism without any meaningful substance.
It seems to me that nativists who currently scream at school-aged children forget that the objects of their disdain are real people with inherent worth.
It seems to me that nativists who currently scream at school-aged children forget that the objects of their disdain are real people with inherent worth.” Well said indeed my friend.
Sounds like youre assistant been snorting helium man.
The idiots on the right side of the aisle are just that IDIOTS. The bad thing is they’re running the fucking country so dems you need to get out and vote or you will be the IDIOTS!
You are so right Tim. Dems are lazy, while Republicans are insane. Unfortunately the insane vote and the lazy don’t.
This is well-written and I would enjoy the podcasts more if you got rid of that assistant and that horrible music. Regardless, this should be publicized everywhere because it’s really good Burr and Mike. Thanks.
Good read about some stupid and mean spirited people. Republicans on the far right simply do not understand the concept on which the country was built. They are truly emblematic of “the blind man reading to his deaf wife.”
I love that blind man-deaf wife saying Bill. Will use it in class. Thanks 🙂