There has been an odd occurrence this week: at least two publications encouraging President Obama to euphemistically become violent with people who do not agree with him.

Roland S. Martin, CNN, Feb. 11, 2010: “Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let ‘em know that if they aren’t with you, they are against you, and will pay the price.”

David Reilly, Bloomberg, Feb. 12, 2010: “President Barack Obama is starting to look like the second coming of Jimmy Carter. If he’s going to avoid that fate, the president had better take radical action — and fast…Obama needs to ditch his professorial, community-organizer mien and start cracking some heads.”

The former instance is much more glaring than the latter but that there has been a euphemistic call for Presidential violence twice in the last two days should not be overlooked. I’m not saying this is the first time this type of language has been used in politics, but it strikes a chord now particularly after we have been told time and again that Tea Partiers are all racist potential assassins.

Words matter, so what does this signify and what are the implications of speaking in this manner about Presidential politics? The left is angry that Obama has thus far been unable to remake America in the image he promised, and in the wake of what appears to be an Obamacare meltdown, that anger is bubbling over. Obamacare is the turning point at which the America we love slouches toward the socialist utopia the left craves. To have come so close must be infuriating.

During the summer we saw the tendency for real physical violence displayed by some on the left. Now we see the discourse, to at least a limited extent, becoming violent. Whether Mr Martin’s and Mr Reilly’s instigations are coincidental or the beginning of a trend remains to be seen, but it is at least worth noting this anger and desire for euphemistic violence from the left.

We are in a precarious position right now. It is tempting to gloat over Obama’s perceived predicament: a first year largely seen as a failure, slumping approval numbers, continued inability to pass Obamacare, an inability (unwillingness) to improve the economy, concession to move the KSM trial out of Manhattan. Many things seem to be going our way – on the surface.

But still, this is not the time to be giddy. As momentum and public sentiment seem to swing in our favor, it is time to be all the more serious about who we are and what we believe, and about the threats we face. Our chances of significant gains on November 2nd seem to improve on a weekly, if not daily basis, but the irony of this may be that it isn’t as important as we think it will be.

It may be tempting to think that we weathered the worst of the political storm in 2009, that we can wait it out for the next nine months, with a humbled president, until the mid-terms, at which point he can be rendered impotent for the remainder of his term. I think this would be a grave error.

We are dealing with a president the likes of which our country has never seen. Obama is more extreme and radical than any president in our history. He is a very angry man; we have seen his anger surface time and again, and he openly displayed his disregard for our Constitution, particularly the separation of powers, in the State of the Union address.

His repeated refrain, “I will not give up!” should be taken seriously. Already in twelve months we have seen Obama do things we never thought we would see in America: projected trillion dollar deficits for ten years, government takeovers of industry, open disdain for our military and for our country’s past, and brazen contempt for our Constitution and the Supreme Court among them. The presidency is as powerful now as it has ever been in our nation’s history; a radical like Obama can do an awful lot from the Oval Office with or without congressional approval. Where will it stop? He has told us it won’t: “I will not give up!”

Neither should we.

(a few days late, but better than never)

The State of the Union speech frightened me. That was a not a speech by someone who sees himself as President of the United States as defined in our Constitution. That was a speech by a totalitarian, someone with no respect for separation of powers nor for the American public and who is attempting to pit groups of people (including the Senate and the House) against each other.

The refrain “I will not give up” could very well have been phrased “I will do what I want and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me.” Obama stood in the Capitol last night and told us that he doesn’t care what we think (two-thirds of people do not want the House or the Senate version of health insurance reform, but he demanded they continue on anyway), he doesn’t care what Congress thinks (the Senate turned away his request for an executive commission to tell Congress what they can and can’t vote for, but he doesn’t care, he’ll do it by executive order anyway), and in the most brazen display of contempt for the institutions of our country that I can remember from a public official, he does not care what the Supreme Court thinks.

That speech frightened me and I hope, but am no longer sure, that our country remains recognizable in the years to come because Barack Obama has made clear that he is bent on destroying it.