Imagine if President Barack Obama had governed the way our current president governs today. Picture him dismantling the federal workforce by executive order, stripping away civil service protections without a vote of Congress. Imagine him directing the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute his political enemies, or attempting to fire members of the Federal Reserve Board for resisting partisan pressure. Imagine him seizing control of Washington’s Union Station just because he could. Now add to that a torrent of executive orders, masked federal agents pulling people off the streets into unmarked vans, and threats to deploy active-duty troops into American cities.
If Barack Obama had done any of this, Republicans would not only have cried tyranny, they would have treated it as grounds for immediate impeachment. And they would have had a case.
The record is clear. When Obama created DACA and DAPA to shield some undocumented immigrants from deportation, Republican attorneys general sued him immediately, and the Supreme Court deadlocked 4–4 in United States v. Texas (Texas Tribune, June 23, 2016). House Republicans voted to overturn DACA and accused Obama of violating the Constitution (Roll Call, Dec. 2014). When his administration made Affordable Care Act cost-sharing payments, the House of Representatives actually sued the executive branch, and a federal judge ruled the payments unlawful without a direct appropriation (Washington Post, May 12, 2016). Obama averaged only 35 executive orders per year, the lowest rate of any modern president, yet Republicans branded him “King Barack” (USAFacts, Feb. 2023).
Now compare that history to what we see today. The current president has issued far more executive orders, many reshaping whole parts of government, and Republicans fall silent. He openly revives “Schedule F” to strip protections from career federal workers, replacing merit-based service with partisan loyalty. He uses the Department of Justice not as an independent guarantor of law, but as a weapon against critics and opponents. He interferes with the independence of the Federal Reserve, threatening to remove governors who will not bend to political will. He even meddles in petty matters like the operation of Washington’s Union Station, asserting raw power simply because he can. This is not conservative government. It is the unraveling of the guardrails that make democracy work.
And let us not forget the spectacle of militarized policing. In 2015, a routine Pentagon training exercise called “Jade Helm” prompted such paranoia that Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the State Guard to monitor U.S. soldiers (Texas Tribune, April 2015; The Guardian, July 2015). That was over nothing more than a drill. In 2020, federal agents in camouflage and unmarked vans actually pulled protesters off Portland’s streets, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General later criticized the lack of planning and oversight (Oregon Public Broadcasting, July 2020; DHS OIG Report, 2021). The president even threatened to deploy active-duty troops during the George Floyd protests (ABC News transcript, June 2020). If Obama had done that, Republicans would have treated it as the birth of dictatorship. When Trump did it, many of them applauded.
Even oversight has become a joke. In 2012, when Attorney General Eric Holder refused to turn over some documents related to the “Fast and Furious” investigation, the Republican-led House held him in contempt—the first time in history a sitting Cabinet official had been censured that way (New York Times, June 28, 2012). That was over a records dispute. If Obama had sent masked agents into cities or dismantled the federal workforce without authority, Republicans would have shut down Congress to stop him. Today, they enable it.
And what of the courts? So far, the Supreme Court has given the current president nearly everything he has asked for, on immigration, on executive power, on regulatory dismantling. If there is a bright line where this Court has said “no,” we have yet to see it. Without judicial courage, without congressional oversight, we are left with no effective check at all.
This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. It is not strength to rule by decree, to weaponize justice, to undermine independent institutions, to seize power without consent of the governed. It is dangerous. And if Congress, the courts, and the people themselves do not act, then we are not merely tolerating hypocrisy. We are allowing the deliberate dismantling of constitutional democracy.
Hey everyone—wake up. The alarm is ringing. The question is whether we will hear it in time.
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