Failure of "The Grand Experiment"

Whatever else he has done, President Obama has done two things which prevent me from being able to vote for his reelection. I am utterly inflexible on this. I cannot vote for a man who repeatedly violates his oath of office.

First is his engagement in a war with Libya without authorization from Congress, and the subsequent obfuscation and bogus rationalization which he used to “justify” that action. When American military aircraft are dropping bombs on and firing rockets at the sovereign territory of another nation, that is an act of war, whether our President chooses to use the word or not. The United Nations does not determine the foreign policy of this nation; when it passes a resolution calling for action on the part of its members and that action requires Congressional approval in accordance with the constitution, then the President must obtain Congressional approval. No treaty of any sort replaces the constitution of this nation.

Second is his assassination of two American citizens far from any battlefield without due process of law. The only thing that either of these men had provably done was exercise their right to free speech, and justification of their killing is being based on unproven and unwitnessed allegations made by the President who ordered their execution. That is the act of a tyrant and a dictator, and a direct and flagrant violation of the constitution which he swore an oath to uphold.

I think that Paul Craig Roberts has it exactly right in his analysis of the assassination of Anwar Awlaki and it’s implications and I do not think that the title of his piece, “The Day America Died,” is hyperbole. In claiming executive powers beyond the extreme created by George W. Bush, Obama has erased the imperial claims of executive powers from the realm of partisanship and has made them the national norm. I think, further, that Roberts is correct when he says that we have gone beyond the tipping point and that it no longer matters who we vote for.

Voting has no effect. President “Change” is worse than Bush/Cheney. As Jonathan Turley suggests, Obama is “the most disastrous president in our history.” Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who stands up for the Constitution, but the majority of Americans are too unconcerned with the Constitution to appreciate him.

To expect salvation from an election is delusional. All you can do, if you are young enough, is to leave the country. The only future for Americans is a nightmare.

I am glad that my father, who served his country for 47 years in uniform, did not live to see this, and I am glad that I am old enough that I will die slightly before my nation finishes its descent into nightmare.