Salvador Allende Obama?

Hub Blog has an interesting article on their blog regarding an interesting idea - a future "grand coalition" between the military and President Obama, with the military driving the bus, i.e. making the hard decisions and letting Obama be a "figurehead."

Or, if you want to be more direct, a bloodless coup where the Armed Forces do what Obama is allegedly not doing - protecting America from enemies foreign and domestic. Obama is more comfortable getting the Chicago 2016 Olympics and cozying up to dictators and notsogoodniks. Oh, and raising taxes and redistributing income.

Which leads me to the title of this entry. Salvador Allende was elected the President of Chile in the late 1960s. Which was perfectly fine and legal - as Allende was an avowed Marxist and actually got street cred - until you realize when you give a Marxist power, s/he wants all of it. All was well until the Supreme Court of Chile decided enough was enough and the military deposed Allende in a coup. Allende, seeing his power vanish before his eyes, committed suicide. Thus the democratically elected Marxist was replaced with the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet, who himself had a checkered past - including consolidating power to himself and strictly suppressing speech and freedoms, mixed in with a few "hey, where did Allende's supporters disappear?".

Could a military coup or dictatorship happen here? It's an interesting thought, but a serious one too. If all else in our government ever failed due to disaster or attack, the Armed Forces would have to step in to maintain some semblance of order. There's always the fear of the military or any group in time of crisis taking away the Consitution, the writ of habeas corpus, heavy doses of censorship, etc. Congress would have to take orders from five-star generals and admirals rather than the President. It would be temporary, however, once the chaos lifts and the generals return power to the President.

If Obama is doing a bad job and the military thinks that America is in danger because of his inactivity, then the military should come forward and state their lack of confidence in Obama's ability - and then let Obama defend his positions and schemes.

If Obama cannot, that's a sign of weakness and Obama must decide whether or not he needs better advice - and not from the hard-charging flunkies who want to tax sodas or send Bush's former administration to trial - or he should simply resign with honor, saying "Sorry, guys, I thought I could do it, but I'm just too overwhelmed." It will result in a lot of "I told you so's" from his critics and pleas from his fans to stay (some of which are getting creepily more ardent and fervent by the day), but he will walk away with the respect of the nation.

If Obama stubbornly refuses, or parrots his agenda, then the problem lies either with Obama and his circle of friends, his grand vision for a socialized America, or that someone who has wanted to control America for a long time - perhaps one not of American origin, and certainly one with billions of dollars of influence - is using the weak Obama as a Petri dish, one who they know is as soft as a ripe banana and will appease, agree to get along, and not interfere with their grand vision, and then elect a hard-line dictator of their own to depose Obama.

Thankfully, Obama has one thing up his sleeve that would likely prevent the military from taking over, and that is even though on the surface he seems naive, he isn't. I don't agree with many of his policies, but you also have to remember he's still a politician, and a crafty Chicago machine politician at that. Think about it - he's a wheeler-dealer, a charmer, one who can use his charisma to do things, but on the other hand, he's smart enough not to fall into the collective Borg hive of K Street. Sure, Let's Make a Deal isn't the best way of handling the Middle East, but in private, he's in constant contact with Israel, and surreptitiously getting advice from actual adults (not the petulant and cliquey teenagers that run Congress) on how not to screw up the Middle East.

Obama isn't near Salvador Allende, but if he's not careful, we may find out how we have to keep Joe Biden from inserting his foot into his mouth.