Last year, President Obama mused “longingly” of “going Bulworth” -- a reference to a 1998 Warren Beatty movie where a senator said what he really thinks, without restraint.  What the fictional Senator Bulworth thought, what he pushed for, was socialism. 

Barack Obama has a penchant for power.  The next two years will be very challenging for Americans concerned about their nation’s future.

Obama’s goal to exercise power with very few limits has been clear for some time to all but the most obtuse.  In early 2011 he told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China.  He has not changed his views.  After losing control of the House of Representatives, he rejected compromise with Republicans by boasting he has a “pen and a phone” and would circumvent Congress and the Constitution (in other words, staying the course since his inauguration).  While strolling with the visiting French resident at Monticello he “quipped” that “the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.”  Jefferson would cringe that America, a nation he helped found, would be led by a man who had so little respect for our founding principles and fathers -- and for the American people.

What has followed has been a barrage of executive actions, signing statements, unilateral suspension of laws (Obamacare provisions, in particular), the abuse of prosecutorial discretion to enact a de facto suspension of many aspects of our immigrations laws, the use of regulations -- and the interpretation of the same -- to control, nee dictate, many aspects of the lives of Americans.

But we have seen nothing yet.

His anger at losing the House was palpable.  Imagine what will happen when he loses the Senate.

His rage will know no bounds.

After all, he personalizes politics as no other politician ever has: a toxic combination of his ego and his narcissism.  He was the person who said that while he may not be on the ballot, his policies were.  Earlier in his presidency he had reassured a wavering Democratic Congressman that merely by having Obama in his corner will shield him from repercussions for voting for Obamacare (“this time you’ve got me”)

A rebuke by voters will be a very visible rebuke of him. 

And he will respond accordingly because, as he told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (caught on an open mic-so much for his repeated promises of running “the most transparent administration in history”):

"This is my last election.  After my election, I have more flexibility,"

We can assume the abuse of the Office of the President we have seen so far will just be a warmup for worse to come.  He will flex his power as never before, to impose his agenda on America and fulfill his promise to “fundamentally transform America.”

What can we expect to see in the 26 more months to come in his second term?  The mind boggles.

Barack Obama has tipped his hand already regarding some of his plans.  In a transparent bid (there’s the transparency!) to gin up the Hispanic vote, he has all but declared his intention after the midterms to declare an executive amnesty for the over 10 million illegal immigrants in our nation.  He will protect lawbreakers by failing to enforce immigrations laws -- slash the number of deportations and expand the de facto Dream Act he enacted by fiat; he may bring Ebola victims to America for treatment; expand the number of potential terrorist from the Middle East by granting them asylum in America. 

Paul Sperry writes in the New York Post about “Obama’s post-election plans for a secret radical agenda.”  Among the plans would be the aforementioned amnesty and work permit plans (the State Department has been looking for a vendor to produce 34 million blank green cards and work permits); the likely nomination of Thomas Perez, a radical race-baiting activist and a man who has a flexible concept of honesty (a job requirement for Obama’s appointees) and a proponent of using the widely criticized “disparate impact” theory to reengineer American society by race-based policies involving neighborhoods, affordable housing, loans; the closing of Guantanamo Bay and the transfer of terrorists to American soil -- if he does not just release many more of them than he already has to friendlier Muslim lands where they can plan more violence against their own people, as well as Westerners;  and the imposition of his climate change agenda on America-costs, higher energy prices, lost jobs-be damned (imagine many Solyndras to come-monuments to the folly of ideology over science). 

Indeed, Obama brought John Podesta into the White House as a top adviser in order to push the climate change agenda throughout America.  Podesta boasted that nothing could derail the Obama administration’s efforts to unilaterally enact policies to fight global warming -- that Congress would be, naturally, bypassed.  He has peddled this plan for a while, no doubt a mark in his favor from the power-hungry president who does not work well with others

Podesta authored a report in 2010 outlining ways the president could use his executive authority to push a progressive agenda, including unilateral actions on climate policy. 

Clearly, Obama will do whatever is necessary to save Obamacare, trying short-term patches to keep ahead of the news cycle even if it causes long term harm.  Or he may no longer even care about the media since he will not ever run for reelection.

Barack Obama will use every tool in his kit (hammers, axes, screwdrivers) to “spread the wealth” as he declared his goal to be back in 2008 and has been trying to do ever since then.  Now he can go into overdrive.  Among those Ways and means will be a full-blown regulatory assault and executive order blitz on businesses and those he has deemed in his infinite wisdom to have “earned enough,” as he said four years ago.

He will try to extend his doleful and pernicious legacy by nominating left-wing federal judges who will have lifetime tenure and be ideally positioned to do his bidding after he has left office.  Since Harry Reid abolished the filibuster in the Senate, Obama has been able to have his nominees  confirmed by the Senate with a great deal of success, since they control the chamber and Reid runs roughshod over everyone else and over long-held traditions that he (and Senator Obama)  said were sacred when Democrats were in the minority.

As Edward Whelan recently wrote in the Weekly Standard (The Senate and the Courts: The federal judiciary will follow the election returns):

With little fanfare, President Obama has enjoyed remarkable success in his project to remake the federal courts in his own ideological image.  How much more he achieves during his final two years in office depends in large part on whether Republicans win control of the Senate this November.

Obama’s success is most marked in the federal courts of appeals, the intermediate level of the national judicial hierarchy.  When Obama took office, only 1 of the 13 appellate courts had a majority of Democratic appointees.  Now 9 do.

Obama’s number of confirmed appellate nominees—53—only slightly exceeds President George W.  Bush’s six-year total of 51.  But according to a midyear Congressional Research Service report, Obama’s success rate in getting his appellate nominees confirmed is much higher than Bush’s—83.1 to 68.7 percent.  Even more notably, the pace of confirmations has increased dramatically since last November, when Senate Democrats abolished the filibuster for lower-court nominees.

The influence of appellate courts (also known as circuit courts) should not be underestimated.  They decide nearly 60,000 cases each year.  The Supreme Court’s total docket (including cases from state-court systems) contains fewer than 100 cases per year.  So the courts of appeals provide the final word in 99.9 percent of their cases.

 The takeover of the U.S.  Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was a coup for Obama and his allies since that court reviews many cases related to federal law and regulations.  It is also the court that recently played a key role in trying to keep Obamacare on life support.  The Supreme Court will be called upon to examine the legality of governments using the dubious disparate impact standard to bring about massive change throughout America -- with no input from the rest of America.

Expect far worse to come if the Democrats keep the Senate, since they will be positioned to complete their plot to control America for decades to come.

Charles Lipson suggests other blows to come in Obama’s Post-Election Policy Blowout.  These include a decision to kill the Keystone pipeline project and a deal with Iran that will lead to that terror state -- with so much American blood on its hands -- developing nuclear weapons.  He will also, as has been a veiled threat, turn on Israel even more than he has so far.  This can take the form of letting the jackals at the United Nations run rampant, as well as imposing a Palestinian state on the Israelis -- their safety and security pales in comparison to becoming the founding father of Palestine -- a boast he can make while noting no other president has been able to accomplish that goal. (Qatar will be happy to fund the future Obama Presidential Library). 

Lipson notes these actions, as well as the entire modus operandi, of Barack Obama have constitutional implications:

The problem, as the Founders saw it, is to prevent the president or Congress from acquiring unchecked power, as they will inevitably try to do.  The solution was to divide powers between the executive and the legislature and hope that they would be constrained by countervailing institutional interests.  But Harry Reid is a “party man,” not a “Senate man.”

Liberal Law professor Jonathan Turley has made similar arguments about the entire nature of the Obama presidency: Obama “has become the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid.”   Truer words have rarely been spoken.

This is why it is imperative to cleanse the Congress as much as possible of Democrats who do Obama’s bidding -- that will open a lot of spots.  Barack Obama has rammed too much through with the connivance of the devious Harry Reid (who lately has been stoking racism to turn up black turnout) and the Democratic enablers who have empowered him.

Skeptics may ask: what can the Republicans do in the Senate? Fair question; no doubt there is a lot of dissatisfaction with Republicans and not an inconsiderable amount of it has been earned over the years.

But, last I checked, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and other stars of the Tea Party still consider themselves Republicans.  The more Republicans in Congress the more empowered they will become.

A GOP Senate can deny confirmation of Obama’s nominees to a wide range of positions, not just judges, also cabinet positions, and ambassadors. And the Senate can use their power to kill treaties he has signed with other nations.

Republicans can use the power of the purse to help control Obama.  Our military can be restored.  We can be respected again throughout the world, instead of held in contempt by our adversaries.  We can disable as much of the onerous ObamaCare as can be done by controlling the budget.  Tax rates can be fairer and be used to promote growth instead of being seen as a honey pot to spread the wealth.  Cheap energy prices through the opening of federal lands for exploration.  Podesta may tout the ability to circumvent Congress but budgets and well-drafted laws can put a halt to Obama’s end run around the Constitution and the American people.

They can exercise oversight as Congressman Darrell Issa and others have in the House.  Imagine the spectacle as Obama’s minions have to trudge over to both sides of the Capitol to explain their actions.  The House has been passing some bills that comport reasonably well with conservatives but Harry Reid has killed them in the Senate (it has been a do-nothing Senate, not a do-nothing Congress).  Reid has protected Obama and also Democratic Senators from having to cast votes that will reveal their true loyalties.  That shield will be stripped from covering them.  Bills should be passed as they used to be: with very detailed specificity so Obama and the bureaucratic fiefdom under his control will not have space or power to “interpret” rules as they wish.

Obama aspires to have as much power as he can so he can fulfill at least one promise “to fundamentally transform America.”  He has had an imperial presidency for six years.  It is time to end.  His response when cornered will be to vent even more rage -- and if he becomes incendiary, enough people will not be looking favorably on any Democrats (including Hillary Clinton) who may want to succeed him.  His true nature will be shown as he tries to defy the American people.

Benjamin Franklin could not have said it better.  When asked what type of government America would have at the end of the Revolutionary War and after the toil of creating our Constitution “Well, Doctor, what he we got a Republic or a Monarchy?”

Franklin answered in words that have echoed through the ages, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Can we?