Barack Obama has continued the practice used by George W. Bush of doing outrageous things at the end of the week, so that people find out on a Friday afternoon. Over the weekend, outrage dissipates, and by Monday morning, people have forgotten what they had been bothered by, and the story fades away. It worked for Bush, time and time again, and now it’s working for Obama.
I’ve always been a little bit different from other people, and so, for me, Monday morning is a time when I get my dander back up. I hate to sit back being a passive victim of the news cycle, so I use Monday morning as a time to review the Friday announcements that bothered me both.
Let me share this ritual with you this morning, and bring your attention back to two Friday news items that got mostly lost in the blur of Americans sprinting to the beach:
1. The Obama Administration defended laws that discriminate against gays and lesbians, making all sorts of outlandish arguments, such as that same-sex marriage is like incest, and that banning same-sex marriage isn’t discrimination at all, because gay men still have the equal right to marry women, and lesbians still have the equal right to marry men.
2. Barack Obama asserted that he has the power to deny justice to victims of extraordinary rendition, having been kidnapped by the American government, shipped overseas and then tortured. Obama claimed that he can quash these lawsuits merely by stating that there are state secrets involved – without having even to provide any evidence that it’s actually true.
Hey Obama supporters, riddle me this while you drink that first cup of coffee for the week: How do these two actions fit with the spirit of Yes We Can?
Obama is letting people down more than Bush, so far in his 1st year. At least with Bush most of us knew what we were in for and he didn’t disappoint – in fact he turned out to be the worst president EVER in so many categories we can safely say, “in general.” With all the progressive people voting for and contributing to Obama, you’d assume he’d at least represent us in the way he led us to believe during the campaign. The good news is that it’s still early in his term. The bad news is that he’s been influenced by the same corporate people that got us in to this mess under Bush, and he’s extending the Bush policies, which is decidedly NOT the change we came to expect.
One small consolation is that we can at least e-mail him and let him know about our disappointment and urge him to change course (which i’ve done and will continue to do). Bush wouldn’t even acknowledge our existence.