I read Jim Hall”s letter to the editor and generally agree with his sentiments as a liberal. However it is not as clear-cut a case between the Republican or Democratic parties as he thinks.
When I voted for Barack Obama in 2008 I believed in his message of change. I was hoping that his being a black man would bring to the office of President a concern for the underdogs of this world, and I also thought he was qualified to be President from an education and temperament standpoint. It was exciting to me that the United States had it”s first black President, but as the years go by I see in his leadership a carryover of many policies from the Bush administration.
Exhibit A would be his expansion of state secrecy and targeted killings overseas without oversight. You tend to have go to overseas to find this information in mainstream media. In this case I found it through the online website of The Guardian Newspaper in Great Britain.
In the most recent article it showed that he is personally in charge of a “kill list” for drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan.
This list has essentially no external oversight. It was disclosed that the official policy is that any man killed in a drone attack that is of military age is considered to have been a terrorist combatant until proven otherwise.
I guess that should satisfy everyone except for families of innocent men. There is always a risk of innocents being killed when there is no oversight other than the President and it is not acceptable as our national policy to have no review process. How this is being gotten around is by a strict policy of secrecy in the Obama administration regarding any such actions and by going after whistle-blowers with a vengeance. Instead of confronting mistakes where the press finds out about mistakes in targeted killings overseas, Obama instead goes after the person or people who let the cat out of the bag. No wonder Washington insiders are saying these actions represent the policies of G.W. Bush, but on steroids. This is not what I voted for.
Furthermore, it now appears the National Defense Authorization Act that allows rendition without time limit and without benefit of a trial for U.S. citizens was actually pushed by Obama. There is too much evidence that is consistent with his other actions to ignore. I have many more disappointments in this administration that don”t relate to the expansion of the national security state. Perhaps my biggest one is that not a single person has been brought up on charges for the malfeasance of Wall Street. If you think Obama escapes responsibility for that, think again. Instead of setting an example by saying these actions were unacceptable and deserve harsh punishment and reparation he has always maintained that we have to look forward. Yeah right. Yes, any President is not all-powerful, but they still have a mighty bully pulpit that can get important issues into the national conversation. He failed miserably at that except when it is time for campaigning. However, when real leadership on this issue was needed to scale back corporate power he was nowhere to be found.
So, to sum up: I refuse to be labeled a racist. It wouldn”t matter what the color, gender, or sexual-orientation was of the person who was President if he/she acted like this, I wouldn”t like it. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, don”t ever judge a person by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. That is what I”m doing. Don”t worry, I won”t be voting for his Republican opponent either.
Eric Habegger
Lakeport
