Remember Honduras

In late June a military coup ousted President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras and installed an interim government. Your first reaction might be to chalk this up to yet another banana republic run amok swapping one colonel with shinny glasses for another two-bit dictator dressed in the drab green uniform. You would be wrong to do so.

President Obama came to the defense of the ousted Honduran President and hoped to offer support for Zelaya's return to power. In a July 7, 2009 article on ABC News Jake Tapper reported on Obama's explanation for his support of Zelaya.

“America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies,” the president told graduate students at the commencement ceremony of Moscow’s New Economic School. “We do so not because we agree with him. We do so because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not. " -President Obama

Jake Tapper went on to clarify the circumstances surrounding Zelaya's removal.

"The military removal of Zelaya as president – and the appointment of Roberto Micheletti as interim President by the Honduran legislature – came after Zelaya attempted to rewrite his nation’s constitution to end term limits to continue his rule, despite the fact that term limits in the constitution is one of eight “firm articles” that cannot be changed. -Jake Tapper

After the Honduran Legislature refused to call a constitutional convention to rewrite the constitution, Zelaya called for a referendum to do so, which the Honduran Supreme Court and Attorney General declared unconstitutional. Zelaya, allied with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez , fired top military commander Romeo Vásquez Velásquez for refusing to carry out the referendum. Every branch of government sided against Zelaya and Congress began discussing impeachment proceedings. Acting on orders from the Honduran Supreme Court, soldiers arrested Zelaya on June 28 and sent him into exile in Costa Rica." -Jake Tapper

So let's parse Obama's statement of support for the ousted Zelaya in the light of the facts.

“America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies,”-President Obama. What Obama really seems to be saying is that once a person is democratically elected, he or she is forever entitled to hold that office. The legislature, Supreme Court and the Military of Honduras rejected Zelaya's bid to extend his rule by altering that nation's constitution. In essence, Zelaya sought to change the mechanics of the system to suit his political ambitions. It should be noted that when the mechanisms for changing the constitution failed Zelaya, he partnered with the Communist dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to conduct a referendum that the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional. Clearly, Zelaya has no legitimacy. So why would Obama support an ousted president bent on assuming tyrannical control of Honduras?

Simple. I believe Barack Obama to be a Marxist. I think that he supports the restoration of Manuel Zelaya not only because they share the same ideology, but also a philosophical aversion for the constitutional restrictions on executive authority. Manuel Zelaya has worked against his own constitution, going so far as enlisting the foreign interference of the government of Hugo Chavez to ensconce himself in power in defiance of the rule of law. President Obama has great disdain for the US Constitution. There is little doubt that this imperious President will seek to bend our Constitution until it is configured into something more pliable and forgiving to his aspirations. Obama wants to legitimize Zelaya's grab for power as a precursor to his own gambit against the Constitution he holds in such disregard. He will invoke the true "will of the people" and claim moral legitimacy through his electoral victory of once upon a time. If we are not careful and ever vigilant, we might be entering the sort of people's democracy that shapes the political landscape of Venezuela and Cuba, where presidents are re-elected to office for life.