Give Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) some credit for actually appearing before his constituents to answer their questions — and then promptly take a little away for a ridiculous attempt to pass off Barack Obama’s 31 czars as somehow less of an executive-branch overreach than warrantless surveillance of international communications. That is what provoked the response shown here at Perriello’s meeting last weekend, in which an angry constituent lectures the Congressman on Obama’s 31 czars (and counting). The proliferation of unaccountable czars in the White House are a direct attack on the power of the legislative branch to check the executive, but Perriello seems oblivious to this:

Note the standing ovation given to the lecture. Perriello and other Democrats had better start learning something from these reactions, because mistrust is beginning to rapidly increase for this administration. The explosion of czars in Obama’s White House has people worried about “shadow governments,” technically an incorrect term but descriptive of the problem (“shadow government” describes opposition-party positions in a parliamentary system or one that wields total power through the use of puppet elected officials). A handful look like an affront to Congress, but dozens begin to look dictatorial.

If nothing else, this demonstrates the end of George Bush as a talking point for Democrats. People weren’t really worried that the NSA was listening to their conversations with Aunt Millie. The czars and the government takeovers of health care and energy production, on the other hand, will impact every American in fundamental ways. Bush as a vague and ambiguous bogeyman has been eclipsed by the very real encroachment on liberty that Barack Obama and his czars promise.