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Who Will Be There For Obusha, When The Floor Drops Out?
By David Michael Green (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)
Then there’s the undoing of Bush’s faith-based initiative, one of the greatest examples of Constitution shredding out there, from a guy who was the acknowledged master. Obama has now issued new executive rules regarding the relationship between church activities and state money, but declined to actually revoke Bush’s rule, which allows religious organizations to make hiring decisions based on religion, for jobs funded by you and me. I’m not okay with that, and neither is the Constitution. It’s grim enough that we have to endure these assaults when we merely have a reactionary executive and a feeble Congress, especially when the latter is controlled by the alleged opposition party. But must we really put up with more such crimes after sweeping the ‘liberals’ into office?
Still, perhaps the most galling example of Obushism occurred last week in a San Francisco courtroom, where a lawyer from the new (or is it?) Justice Department was asked by the presiding judge whether the government’s position might have changed for any particular reason (wink, wink, nod, nod) since the last time the court was last convened to take up this particular case on the question of extraordinary rendition. Bush’s Justice Department had argued that the state secrets doctrine required the court to dismiss the case without even hearing evidence, effectively giving the president the right to do anything to anybody, without judicial protection or remedy of any sort. You know – kinda like the script for a Dick Cheney porno film. Since candidate Obama had severely criticized such patently and fundamentally unconstitutional concepts, the judges on the Ninth Circuit had good reason to expect that President Obama might reverse the government’s position in this case. They even asked the government’s lawyer a second time, in semi-astonishment, to be sure they were hearing him right. All to no avail. The position of the Obama administration is identical to that of Bush, Cheney, Gonzales and Yoo. The president can order you to be captured, stripped down to diapers, bagged up, tossed on a CIA plane, delivered to Egypt, Bulgaria or Tajikstan, tortured and maybe even killed. All without any scrutiny by anyone.
Maybe it’s just my weak vision, but when I pulled out my copy of the Constitution and pored over it carefully once again, I couldn’t find any language of that sort anywhere. In fact, it almost seemed like that document, and the Declaration of Independence, were written by a bunch of angry patriots pissed off at exactly such behaviors on the part of the British crown. Could President Obama, the former constitutional law professor, really be espousing the same civil liberties policies – hardly exceeded in egregiousness – as those of George III and Bush II? I guess I better re-read those documents yet once more.
Especially since another New York Times article, under the happy title of “Obama’s War on Terror May Resemble Bush’s in Some Areas”, just noted that, “In little-noticed confirmation testimony recently, Obama nominees endorsed continuing the C.I.A.’s program of transferring prisoners to other countries without legal rights, and indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects without trials even if they were arrested far from a war zone”. And, just in case the sum of the above still hasn’t depressed you enough, the piece goes on to remind us of how the new administration recently offered its thanks to the British government when a UK court deferred to American pressure in refusing to release information about the torture of a detainee held by the US. Wow.
If this was just another president doing what presidents do, these developments would merely be disappointing. In fact, they are nearly devastating when considered in context. This is the president who follows the one sure to be known as The Great Trampler, and this is the president who heartily criticized his predecessor’s constitutional calamities just months ago on the campaign trail, and this is the president only weeks in office, finally revealing his policies, not just his promises. If you care about equality, justice and freedom, there is good reason here, one month into the Obama reign, to be heartbroken already.
Look, I don’t expect any president to be one hundred percent in agreement with my positions, brilliant as they universally are on all issues. And least of all did I expect that Barack Obama would be a full-blown lefty, though I still think events might push him in that direction, as they did Franklin Roosevelt. But here’s the thing I’m wondering right now, strictly from the perspective of Obama’s own self-interest: Who’s gonna be there for him when the floor drops out, as it inevitably will at some point? Just who does he think will rally to his support if, for example, a year from now unemployment is up to 15 percent and he has shown no sign of abating this devastating depression?
Will it be the centrist middle class? At some point, they may run well out of patience, their jobs gone, their homes foreclosed upon, their health deteriorating, their hope sagging, and right-wing freaks incessantly screaming in their ears the pounding drumbeat of failed ‘liberal’ policies.
Does he think it will be those very regressives, who one might have expected to be somewhat chastened by their trouncing in two consecutive election cycles? Because when I look at how John McCain and Lindsay Graham and Rush Limbaugh are reacting to the bipartisan olive branch that Obama extended to them, I kinda don’t think so. When I see how many Republicans (three) in both houses of the entire Congress voted for his stimulus bill, I kinda don’t think so.
Does he think it will be progressives? Well, I can only speak for myself, but one month in and I’m already feeling burned by this guy. If he continues to cater to the predatory rich in this country, leaving the rest of us holding the bag, and if he continues to shred the Constitution as if he were George Bush’s kid brother, and if he is nearly as militaristic as the Strangeloves he just ejected from office, then I really won’t care a bit if he gets smashed halfway through his first term. In fact, I might even be happy to see it happen.
So, if it ain’t the right and it ain’t the center and it ain’t the left, just who does Obama think will be there standing with him should his presidency hits the rocks?
When you take away all those folks, just who does he think will have his back in tough times?
The Aryan Nation?
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