President Obama (credit: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)[/caption]Presidential elections in the United States are a disgraceful farce. Every four years, I feel more and more dejected about the process and my stake in it.
The rise of Super PACS, along with the ever-growing power of the mass media, lobby groups, the military-industrial complex and corporations, have poisoned the entire political system and I do not see a light at the end of the tunnel.
No longer do I feel that I am a citizen of a democratic country, nor do I feel that I can shape the national character of my country, much less its reputation abroad.
As far as I can tell, America is in the throes of an identity crisis, one that has exposed our hatred of one another, our ignorance of everything outside our comfort zones, and our blind embrace of ideology and religious edicts.
What happened to the rule of law, the US Constitution, the commitment to family and the striving for something higher than ourselves?
Many of us hoped that a term with President Barack Obama would lead us back to these core responsibilities and ideals, but like most before him, he has disappointed and fooled even the most cynical among us.
American law professor, Jonathan Turley, reminds Truthout readers in an interview that shortly after President Obama was elected, he reassured CIA employees that they would not be investigated for torture that was committed during the Bush Administration.
This is in spite of the fact that, one, Obama had spent his entire campaign railing against torture, making the promise to close Guantanamo Bay prison, and two, the US is obligated to investigate and prosecute torture as stated in the number of international treaties baring its signature.
“We pushed through those treaties because we wanted to make clear that no matter what the expediency of the moment, no matter whether it was convenient or inconvenient, all nations had to agree to investigate and prosecute torture and other war crimes,” he tells actor John Cusack, who conducted the interview.
Just last week, the Justice Department announced that it would end its criminal investigation into interrogation practices employed during the Bush Administration for a lack of evidence, to which CIA Director David Petraeus responded: "As intelligence officers, our inclination, of course, is to look ahead to the challenges of the future rather than backwards at those of the past,” AP quoted him as saying in a message to employees.
Am I surprised, no. But it strengthens the already set precedence that US government officials can literally get away with murder.
Let me go on. Obama also ordered the assassination of two US citizens, followed by the formulation of a policy that gives the president of the United States the authority to kill any American citizen who is unilaterally deemed by the president to be a terrorist threat. The highly controversial Drone Program is a key component of this.
Far from being different than President George W. Bush, President Obama is merely continuing and even expanding in some cases the troubling policies of his predecessor.
I have one word for Mitt Romney: loser
So, like many voters, I am tormented by the inevitability that I will have to choose between voting for the best of the worst and not voting at all.
Like Prof. Turley said: “You cannot pretend that your vote does not constitute at least a tacit approval of the policies of the candidate.”
The decision must be made.
