What to do if you are the President of the United States and you can’t get Congress to make the laws you want?
You carry out an executive order to achieve the desired result.
Case in point: According to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal a new executive order will demand that any company that wants a federal government contract has to disclose any political donations above $5,000 to any candidate or any independent group.
The objective here is to increase your chances of re-election by restricting political speech to its pre-Citizens United status. The first attempt failed – Congress did not pass the Disclose Act.
Lots of money went to independent groups opposing Barack Obama’s political ideas during the midterm elections. The result manifested the urgency of action – a repeat during the presidential election is deemed intolerable.
And therefore here it comes – the executive order. It’s currently being drafted and will descend upon us soon like a deus ex machina.
The order will ensure that government contractors do not donate significant amounts of money to independent groups opposed to the worldview of President Barack Obama.
Obviously, the true reason for the executive order must be disguised by declaring the opposite of what the order is meant to achieve. In this case the pretense is to make sure the federal contracting system is not influenced by “political activity or political favoritism.”
With the new executive order in place the federal government is sure to grant federal contracts solely to firms that support organizations backing the President or to firms that give insignificant amounts of money to his adversaries or do not donate any money to any independent organization. The order will therefore reward firms that will refrain from donating more than $5,000 to organizations opposing the President. And it will reduce the profits of firms that continue to give significant amounts of money to the wrong organizations – thereby decreasing the amount of money they can afford to give. Brilliant.
Where there is a will there is a way. With the right mindset it is child’s play to dismantle the institutions of a democracy. Even in America.
