More and more, Mr. Obama’s speeches reflect the progressives’ impatience with politics of any sort and their preference for policy by imposition. Mr. Obama, though, goes further. He seems unable to admit the very idea of political disagreement with him, as he so often puts it.
In 2010, the Obama cap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon emissions failed in the Senate because Democratic senators from the coal-reliant Midwest and South refused to support it. They cited the hardship it would impose on their states.
Those Democrats opposed cap-and-trade because they represent constituencies—voters—who oppose the economics of Mr. Obama’s carbon policy. This political tension, inherent to the American political system, is inconvenient to Mr. Obama. So in June the Obama EPA announced a 30% reduction in carbon from U.S. power plants. West Virginia’s miners can eat their coal.
If congressional Republicans had even minimal institutional trust in the president, Mr. Obama would be able to assemble a majority to pass immigration reform. He can’t, or won’t, and so he rants. More than a few Americans watching parades pass by this weekend will recall that one man’s whim as the way we make laws has no support in the U.S. Not now, not ever.
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