We’re just over a day away from a Presidential Election. It’s ugly. It’s frustrating. And some people are going to get their feelings hurt.
But some of us are honest. Here’s some honesty for you.
If you support Barack Obama, you are supporting a President who intentionally kills innocent people in drone strikes. You are supporting a President with a ‘kill list’. And you are supporting a President who asked Congress for the power to arrest and detain anyone he wants (including US citizens) and hold them indefinitely without charge or trial (and Congress, including the Republicans, gave him that power.)
If hearing that upsets you, and based on my Twitter and Facebook interaction it does, I’m sorry. But it’s true. I’m not making it up, a little time on the Google will show you, just search for “drone war”, “kill list”, and “NDAA” for a start.
What I think is upsetting you, and it would me, is that someone is daring point out that the person who promised Change, who we made into an idol, is just another politician who has a twofold goal: get power, get re-elected. And you’ve been duped.
He doesn’t care about the ‘war on women’. If he did, something would have been done about it during the first two years of his Presidency when Democrats, those lovers of women (in more ways than one, right Kennedys?) were in control of Congress. But he didn’t. So unless history started 2 years ago, he’s not really on your side.
He doesn’t care about gay rights, either. Again, if he did, he would have “evolved” his position (to that of Dick Cheney, by the way) when Democrats were in control, and they could have passed legislation. But no.
Your health care? Really? He passed a law that requires the purchase of the product sold by… health insurance companies! We’re still finding out what’s in this mess. It wasn’t what he sold you (in fact it is a bill he said he would veto).
When it comes down to it, he is, and always has been, a politician. Ask yourself why he ended up in Chicago. Ask why he associated with Ayers and Wright (it wasn’t philosophical, as much as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity might want you to believe.) It was because they gave him access and credibility with their powerful constituencies.
He’s shown a total lack of leadership, from the first two years where nothing but a mess of a health care bill and a stimulus package were passed, to the most recent mess in Benghazi (which isn’t the worst thing ever, but highlights his lack of leadership). Leadership is developed, and he has never led.
I too had some hope, after 8 years of destruction of civil liberties. I knew he’d be awful on economic issues, and I thought he’d be pretty bad on foreign policy, but at least I thought he’d be better on civil liberties than McCain. But Gitmo is still there. Any bills posted on the internet before he signed them as promised? He’s raided more medical marijuana dispensaries in three and a half years than W did in eight. That’s not the civil libertine he sold us, is it? W never used a drone to kill a US citizen. Obama has. Twice. One of them a 16 year old.
So pulling the lever for him is pulling the lever for yet another career politician, one who is using his power to kill innocent people, children, in far away lands. Elections have consequences, and re electing him will lead to more innocent death.
I’m sorry if that upsets you. But it’s true.
Romney is only marginally better. And only because he exhibits some leadership skills, although those skills will be used to further erode our liberty just as President Obama has done. He might be a little better on economic issues, but his positions on China and immigration suggest perhaps not.
And he pretty much designed the template for the health care bill. How’s that working out for you Mass?
But he agrees the President should have the power to unilaterally kill people he decides are terrorists. Just trust him.
There are other choices. In Maryland, Jill Stein (Green) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian) are both on the ballot, and there are a number of other write in choices. I know Stein and Johnson both will end the drone killings. They have very different viewpoints on other issues. Read up.
Check out Rocky Anderson (Justice) and Virgil Goode (Constitution), too. Both of them would end Presidential assassinations.
Yes, there are other issues. I don’t see much difference between Republicans and Democrats, both want to increase the power of the state, they just fight over how to use the power. But I think there are some pretty clear big issues on fundamental rights, and both Obama and Romney agree on those issues. You do not own your body, and the government can detain or kill you with no due process.
Above all else, please vote your conscience. Not idolatry.
If you believe it’s wrong to assassinate innocent people, including children, intentionally, then don’t vote for Obama or Romney.
If you believe assassinating innocent children is OK, well I don’t really know what to say to you, because I can’t pretend to understand.
Windy Recycling Day 