Right wing nitwits continue to claim that President Obama has usurped the powers of Congress in order to pursue his liberal, socialist agenda. They derisively refer to him as King Obama or Emperor Obama.
Ironically, he very nearly earned such a title.
According to Jon Meacham’s book, Thomas Jefferson – The Art of Power, many of the Founding Fathers were strongly in favor of creating a new monarchy following the end of the Revolutionary War. Some wanted to apply for a sovereign of the house of Hanover. Indeed, Alexander Hamilton was said to favor the establishment of a monarchy with a family compact, placing the crown upon the head of a foreign prince.
Thankfully, Hamilton and the rest of his faction were overruled.
Even when the Constitutional Convention agreed to elect the head of our government, John Adams proposed that the president be called “His Highness the President of the United States and protector of their liberties.”
Imagine the knots in the knickers of Tea Party “Patriots” if they actually had to refer to Barack Obama this way.