"The change, it had to come ..."
So we were told. So we held up the iconic blue-and-red signs that read, "Hope."
But nowadays, it's looking more like, "Meet the new Boss. Same as the old Boss."
Barack Obama promised us a more Web 2.0-type government. We were promised transparency. In the age of twitter and blogs and social media, we thought we would finally be able to see behind the curtain, to know what was going on -- and be able to communicate with our government. America 2.0. A really great vision, right? I thought so as well.
Yet, today I read the following on this very site with regard to warrantless wiretapping: "The decision by the three-judge appeals panel is a setback for the new Obama administration as it adopts some of the same positions on national security and secrecy as the Bush administration." (From '"Court Rejects Obama Admin's Effort To Stop Warrantless Wiretap Suit")
I did a double-take. The Obama administration is now supporting warrantless wiretapping?!? What the --?
Pardon me, but I'd thought we'd left the dirty world of Gitmo and secret prisons and torture and warrantless wiretapping behind when the national shame of the Bush administrations ended a few weeks back. Yet, now I see President Obama doing the exact same thing. Obama, a Democratic President, pretty much in control of both houses of Congress. And yet, we are still backsliding from the great democracy the world has ever known into a regime.
I'm starting to get a sinking feeling that this is not really a 'Democrat versus Republican' thing anymore. After all, to change things, we elected a Democratic congress, then a Democratic president. But despite this, some things are not changing at all.
Can it be that Democrats and Republicans are not really opposites? Could it be, instead, that they are mirror twins of each other?
After all, both parties now seem to ignore the will of the people once elected. You want proof? We The People very emphatically did not want this monster bailout of Wall Street -- yet, it happened (never before have the switchboards lit up like they did in opposition to this bill). Likewise, We The People don't want a government given to Soviet-style warrantless wiretapping. And yet it continues.
And now, Barack Obama actually defends it. He now treads in the soiled footsteps of George W. Bush. Let us hope it is but a single misstep. Let us hope President Obama is the real deal, and gets back on track, and shuns the ways of secrecy and un-American ways of doing things.
But as for me, I'll need to see more proof before I invest President Obama with further faith.
I won't get fooled again.