What is a popular President to do when he is unable to pass legislation he believes the people want? Well, if you are Mohamed Morsi or Barack Obama, you issue an executive order, of course!
In an unsurprising move on Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood leader in Egypt issued presidential decrees that allowed him to usurp the democratic process. President Mohamed Morsi declared himself the guardian of the Egyptian revolution, granting him higher power than any court, in order to issue a retrial of former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarek. He believes that the contentious atmosphere in the legislature is halting the democratic process, and he needed to go around the process for it to move forward.
If this sounds familiar, it is because President Barack Obama has been issuing his own executive orders since the 2010 mid-term elections when the US Congress became divided, and his legislation could no longer become the law of the land. Since becoming the President, Obama has issued 141 executive orders, many of them having to do with security and defense, or giving opinions on certain policies. However, he has also grown the size and scope of government, creating dozens of councils, commissions, and task forces.
More disturbing than President Obama's executive orders, however, are his presidential decrees, where he has decided things like which immigration laws to enforce or how the EPA will limit companies carbon usage. These decrees have more bite in them, since they go directly to the agency in charge of said decree. Those agencies will then carry out the decree by enacting new rules and regulations, or just ignoring old ones.
So, while the Egyptian people feel sucker-punched by Morsi's power grab, they shouldn't be surprised. Most of today's democratic leaders rule by decree and executive order, especially when the wheels of democracy turn at a snail's pace. Perhaps the uprising of the Egyptian people against such dictatorial policy will open the eyes of the American people, but I'm guessing the American people will remain asleep.
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