To hear his progressive critics tell it, Barack Obama has long been given to preemptive compromise. Even when his rhetoric has soared at its highest, the cautious president has always been careful to offer his Republican critics an olive branch—often one torn directly from the trunk of his own agenda.
The crushing of dissent, the official identification of dissenters, the vast expansion of federal power, and the hyper-arming of local authorities. We are, at this moment, in a savagely perilous place.