Jim DeMint

President Obama graduates from the White House with poor grades in three major areas: fidelity to the Constitution, foreign policy and his representation of all Americans:

First, the countless executive orders President Obama has issued, and the unlimited scope of his federal agencies, make a mockery of the few and defined powers granted by the Constitution, while usurping legislative authority from the representatives of We the Peoples in Congress.

The most prominent example of this attitude is the president’s signature “achievement,” Obamacare, which has proved unworkable and costly for many American families. The architects of the so-called Affordable Care Act made federal control of our health care system and individual mandates more important than actual affordability, practicality and the freedom of American patients. Growing government became an end in itself under Obama, as our doubled national debt attests.

Second, while I am sure that the president has honestly desired peace around the world, too often he has expressed that desire in muddled, apologetic and passive-aggressive stances that abandon our allies and embolden our enemies.

You only need to look at the rise of the Islamic State terrorist group, the carnage in Syria, continuation of terror attacks at home and abroad, botched involvement in Libya and Egypt’s revolutions, giveaways to Iran, and our current brinksmanship with Russia to see what President Obama’s foreign policies have wrought. And even as the world becomes more dangerous, our military is being stripped of resources and capability.

Obama leaves a complex legacy: Our view

Third, President Obama, his appointees and his judges have demonstrated a deep antipathy for the values and traditions of the great majority of regular Americans. In an effort to reshape their countrymen through progressive cultural ideas, they have started to attack our First Amendment rights, our freedom of association, and even our collective right to control immigration into our nation.

Our deeply held religious beliefs have been a great inconvenience to the president. Just ask the nuns whom his administration tried to bully into providing drugs they didn’t want or need: If they taught school, they’d probably give President Obama a failing grade, too.

Former senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is president of the Heritage Foundation.