Today, President Obama will issue a decree “telling public schools across the nation to allow transgenders to use the bathrooms of the gender with which they identify.”

It was not long ago that Democrats warned that such approaches would do little to solve the nation’s biggest problems.  Here is Bob Beckel, Democratic strategist, talking about McCain, Obama, and the presidency in 2008:

Before we get too caught up spinning our tires in the mud over Obama‘s record, let’s consider the political reality of the day. No matter what either McCain or Obama says, neither could reign as an ideologue and expect to have a consequential presidency. The biggest issues of the day — energy independence, our national debt, health care reform, Social Security reform and, yes, global warming — can’t be solved by presidential decree. Every one of these issues will require a bipartisan approach. McCain will need the Democrats, and Obama will need the Republicans.

(“A uniter or a fraud?: Whether Barack Obama would give America ‘change we can believe in’ is not knowable. But Bob and Cal believe one thing is certain: If he hopes to have a consequential presidency, bipartisanship provides the surest path,” USA Today, 29 May 2008: A.11)

Then again, Obama is not really interested in solving big problems anyway.