Lincoln

            In class last week, we watched the move “Lincoln”. This movie tells about the struggle that Abraham Lincoln and his followers went through to get the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution passed. This movie hit some things, historically, right on. However, some other things were Hollywood fantasies.

            One of the things that we were told to blog on was the executive power debate. In the movie, Lincoln tries to use executive powers to do what he wants. Was this right? Wrong? In my opinion I think he did what was right. Some people will argue that he was for slavery in the beginning, how could he ever change his mind?! Well the truth of the matter is that people, along with their views and opinions, change in time! So, Lincoln used his executive powers to try to do good for the country.

 Nowadays, our President has not used his executive powers for just “good”. Obama has taken this privilege of executive powers and turned it into his dominion of play time. It seems that he makes rules that support HIS needs/wants and HIS PARTY’S needs/wants. Yes, we will give the man credit that he has done a few things right, but other than that his executive powers have been abused.

Looking at one of the charts, one can clearly see that Obama has not used nearly as many executive orders as some other presidents have. Abraham Lincoln used quite a few for his time, is this wrong? Look at where Lincoln’s executive orders got us. They got us through a civil war! Now take a look at Obama’s executive orders. He has made it perfectly legal for the government to spy on American citizens. He has made more strict background checks on guns. Where is the good in either of these?

By comparing the abuse of executive powers today, and the use of them in the past, I have concluded that Abraham Lincoln did not abuse his executive powers. He did what he thought was right, and it turned out to be a good thing for our country. Comparing the effects of the ones back then, and the effects of the ones now, there is no contest. The executive orders are getting abused under the Obama presidency.