Leftist think-tank recommends a way around GOP

The wonderfully (mis)named "Center for American Progress" is a left-wing think-tank run by Bill Clinton's former chief of staff. For a couple of weeks I'd heard that the Center had published a report urging Obama to use Executive Orders to accomplish anything that the Dems didn't have the votes to get through Congress.

This seemed too far out to be true, so I held my nose and went to their website to see what the Center was actually saying. And astonishingly, there it was:
americanprogress.org/issues/issues/2010/11/pdf/executive_orders.pdf

I think it's significant that this is the actual title the Center gave to their own webpage. (The title of the report itself--the one printed on the report's title page--is "The Power of the President: Recommendations to Advance Progressive Change") So to the extent one names files by their main point, the thrust of this recommendation as they see it is indeed about issuing executive orders. But to do what?

Here's the introduction, written by the former Clinton chief of staff:

In the aftermath of this month’s midterm congressional elections, pundits...are focusing on how difficult it will be for...Obama to advance his [policies] through Congress. Predictions of stalemate abound. And some debate whether the administration should tack to the left or...compromise with...the new House leadership.

As a former White House chief of staff I believe those to be the wrong preoccupations. [The pResident’s] ability to govern the country...presents an opportunity to demonstrate strength, resolve, and a capacity to get things done on a host of pressing challenges...to the public and our economy. Progress, not positioning, is what the public wants and deserves.

So it seems Clinton's former chief of staff--and his leftist organization--believes Obama shouldn't back off any goals just because the Dems got clobbered in the recent election. Guess that's what he means by "an opportunity to demonstrate strength."

Cool! I mean, why should Leftists care about 'elections' and 'majorities'? To Democrats and leftists those are just meaningless words to con the masses into continuing to submit to socialist policies without taking up pitchforks and rifles.

Amazing how getting shellacked in the mid-terms and losing their super-majority control of the House has changed their tune about elections, eh?

So what does this gang of anti-democracy types recommend? Here's their own language again:

The U.S. Constitution and the laws of our nation grant the president significant authority to make and implement policy. These authorities can be used to ensure positive progress on many of the key issues facing the country through:
• Executive orders
• Rulemaking
• Agency management
• Convening and creating public-private partnerships
• Commanding the armed forces

There it is again, the top item on the list: Executive orders. And right below that is "rulemaking", which implies having federal agencies make rules or policies that might actually be unConstitutional. Otherwise why would this be mentioned in a report that's presumably suggesting novel or rarely-considered techniques to end-run Congress?

Of course to the 40-some percent of Americans who pay no taxes and vote Dem because the Dems have promised to give them free stuff, this is a "so what?" But I can't help feeling that the people who wrote this report are enemies of freedom and democracy.

I realize there are probably lots of Democrats who believe the Center for American Progress is a bunch of far-left goofs. But if so you'd think at least one or two would stand up and say so.

Of course we're talking about Democrats here, so no one is willing to dissent from the straight party line.

Guess no one wants to risk getting crossed off all the cool invitation lists.