First, Obama is seeking to expand the federal government’s reach far beyond anything FDR could accomplish. His “Obamacare” health program inserts the federal government more directly than ever into some 15 percent of the economy. His Dodd-Frank legislation, including the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, seeks to regulate financial markets through widespread bureaucratic meddling (a far different approach than FDR’s simpler Glass-Steagall proscriptions on certain financial-institution activities). His cap-and-trade energy legislation, rejected by the Senate in his first term, seems to be back on the agenda, even as he seeks to use government funds to promote a clean-energy industry. And he is employing the country’s regulatory apparatus more aggressively than ever. As David Brooks of the New York Times has written, “Capitalism is just a feeding trough that government can use to fuel its expansion.”

Second, Obama’s zest for power seems to breed a contempt for the legislative and judicial branches of government. Since Congress rejected his cap-and-trade legislation, he has sought to implement much of it through regulatory activity and executive decision making. In unleashing military action in Libya, he stiffed Congress’s constitutional authority in war-making decisions. His drone-warfare efforts have been conducted largely without regard to the sensibilities of Congress. He has entered into a “binding” agreement—a quasi treaty, really—outlining U.S. relations with Afghanistan without seeking congressional consultation, although the Afghan legislature voted on it. He sought to make recess appointments when Congress wasn’t in recess; when a federal court declared three such appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) illegal, his NLRB simply ignored the court and proceeded with its agenda.

Third, and perhaps most important, Obama coddles the “middle class” even as he goes after the so-called wealthy. Recall that Roosevelt expanded the number of Americans subject to the income tax, which brought a certain balance to his soak-the-rich tax initiatives. Just about everybody had to pay something. But Obama’s class baiting takes place in a context in which half of U.S. workers don’t pay federal income tax at all. Hence his class assaults drive a powerful wedge between the wealthier citizens, deemed responsible for most of the country’s ills, and the rest of society, who are considered blameless and held harmless. This at a time when the top 1 percent of Americans pay 37 percent of all income taxes, while the top 5 percent pay nearly 60 percent.