For many years I was apolitical. I had a vague interest in how the country was run, vaguer interest in how my home state was run, and that's about it. I don't think the path I traveled from that point until now is all that uncommon among Kossacks.
That changed to some extent when Bush and his team stole the 2000 election from Al Gore. It seemed like a no-brainer to me and my family and friends that Al Gore would win the election, and we were frankly dumbfounded when the Supreme Court selected George Bush instead.
But, I went about my business. I was a graduate student and my dissertation work took priority over everything. Then 9/11 happened and, like many of you I suspect, I suddenly got interested, really fast, in what was happening in the world and in our country. In 2004, I was a huge Howard Dean supporter. Iraq was everything for me in terms of what was resonating with me in the presidential election. I am staunchly anti-violence and anti-war and simply could not stomach the news from Iraq. Of course, as we know, Bush stole the 2004 election too.
So in 2008 I was looking forward to a brand new era. I was an Edwards supporter (that really worked out well!) and was perfectly content with Obama going into the general election. My wife liked Hilary. To me, it was six of one and a half dozen of the other because the thing I wanted to see most was an end to the violence our nation was perpetrating around the world.
Most of all, honestly, I wanted the torture to end. In fact, had John McCain not flip-flopped and gone all mavericky about waterboarding, I might have had more positive feelings for him as a potential president. (Of course, he also would have had to NOT go completely insane and selected our girl Sarah as his running mate.)
So, when Obama said
To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend – because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists – because living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture.
I was, quite frankly, very deeply moved.
But last night, I had the distinct displeasure of reading Valtin's well-sourced diary about ongoing torture under the Obama administration. (That diary is an excellent read and for that reason I am not going to embed the NYT and WaPo links here. Go read Valtin's diary.)
According to stories in the NY Times and Washington Post, in the present calendar year, teenage Afghans have been beaten and sexually humiliated by US military guards and detainees are held endlessly for interrogation purposes in what effectively is solitary confinement and with no access to Red Cross workers.
I am now progressive to the core. I am disgusted with free market politics, was completely seduced by the Shock Doctrine, fed up with the state of our health care system, our economy, the ongoing prosecution of the "war" in Afghanistan. And I knew that when Obama was elected, a good deal of the Change he was promising had only to do with the change from Republican to Democrat in the Oval Office. But, I did see that there were a few simple things that he could do that would be very safe politically, completely correct legally and ethically, and completely consistent with his overall agenda. So, when he said
I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture.
I really took him at his word. It was such an easy issue. Such a bright line between TORTURING SOMEONE and NOT TORTURING SOMEONE. Really -- the Bushies tried to dim that line, but it is so BRIGHT and unambiguous.
But I am starting to believe, to really believe, that what Obama said back in February was a lie. Or at least a massive stretching of the truth. Because we know that Bush/Cheney didn't "torture" either -- because they redefined what torture was.
I am not throwing in the towel on Obama in the sense that I would never vote for him, support his general agenda, etc. The alternatives to Obama in 2012 are downright frightening. But, if the stories reported by NYT and WaPo pan out -- if under the Obama administration, TORTURE has been happening -- there is simply no way for me to trust this man or listen to any word he says on any issue.
Apologies for anything that sounded like rambling. This is the one issue that makes me wish I were a legal scholar and had all the relevant statutes and cases at my fingertips.