White Flag Syndrome, Creeping Authoritarianism, or both?

Victims are made, not born.

Victimhood is a state learned helplessness.  It is nothing more than a state of mind, but a state of mind that bleeds out in every unscripted word and thought.  The more you embrace it, the stronger the mental habit becomes.  The more you distinguish between what is within your power and what is outside it, and regard only that which is within your power as significant, the less the victim you become.  Bill Clinton beat Newt Gingrich, Eisenhower outlasted the John Birch wing of the Republican Party, everyday some kid out there knocks down a bully, the list of human beings choosing courage over victimhood is endless.  If the President is impotent, it is because due to either skill or character, not the fact that he does not control every lever of power in the American state.

The most powerful victim in the free world is still just a victim.  I look forward to his Hawaiian retirement and my opportunity to forget that he exists.

WhatIf Obama Can't Lead?

Two New York Times reporters recently posited for President Obama this grim scenario: Low growth, high unemployment, and growing income inequality become "the new normal" in the nation he leads. "Do you worry," the journalists asked him, "that that could end up being your legacy simply because of the obstruction ... and the gridlock that doesn't seem to end?" Obama's reply was telling. "I think if I'm arguing for entirely different policies and Congress ends up pursuing policies that I think don't make sense and we get a bad result," he said, "it's hard to argue that'd be my legacy." Actually, it's hard to argue that it wouldn't be his legacy. History judges U.S. presidents based upon what they did and did not accomplish. The obstinacy of their rivals and the severity of their circumstances is little mitigation. Great presidents overcome great hurdles. In Obama's case, the modern GOP is an obstructionist, rudderless party often held hostage by extremists. So … get over it. His response to The New York Times is another illustration that Obama and his liberal allies have a limited—and limiting—definition of presidential leadership.
I call it the White Flag Syndrome.

Daniel Henniger of the Wall Street Journal argues that the flying of the white flag is, by intention or reaction, a feint, with the result of a creeping authoritarianism.  If you are righteous and you are a victim, what are you to do but unseat the evil oppressor by any means necessary?  Gridlock and balance of power are different words for the same reality.  We are gridlocked because the American people are divided.  By playing the victim Obama legitimizes the concerns of his opposition.  If they have done nothing morally wrong, other than having a different point of view, you send the likes of Charlie Rangel out to smear them with racial 
epitaphs.

To create public support for so much unilateral authority, Mr. Obama needs to lessen support for the other two branches of government—Congress and the judiciary. He is doing that.Mr. Obama and his supporters in the punditocracy are defending this escalation by arguing that Congress is "gridlocked." But don't overstate that low congressional approval rating. This is the one branch that represents the views of all Americans. It's gridlocked because voters are.

I would like to think that Victim-think is a pathology with no victim other than the individual who indulges in it.  In reality, however, victim-think, imagined or justified, breeds oppressors as the perceived oppression justifies a suspension of virtue in the name of efficacy.  You do not have to be of any particular political persuasion to question whether or not the President is playing with fire.  You can extend the power of the administrative state, but your party will not always control the White House.  Consistent libertarians are a minority in the American electorate.  Every persuasion, however, will see a day when they wish the Chief Executive wielded less power.