I lost my political virginity in the year 2000, when the Supreme court halted the Florida recount and gave the presidential election to George Bush. Despite this being a flagrant violation of states rights and grab for jurisdiction it didn't have, they stole the election and got away with it. I've never seen the Supreme Court the same since.
Then four years later at the next election, after huge hanky panky in Ohio, Kerry decided to go along & get along, not confront the Republican election fraud and decided to demur and go back to being a senator. He let down all his supporters and the Democratic Party. Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State, had the dual role of being the chief elections official and honorary co-chair of the Committee to re-elect George Bush. Amazingly, this is a perfectly legal conflict of interest. Blackwell handed Ohio to Bush and got away with it. Bush, Blackwell (and Kerry) all live happily ever after.
Bush lied the US into war with Iraq - remember all the weapons of mass destruction? His henchman Rove outed a CIA agent for purely political reasons. And got away with it. We tortured people in the name of the US, and even when lots of pictures of Abu Ghraib emerged, no one except a seargent was prosecuted.
Somehow, torture, "enhanced interrogation" became an acceptable US military tactic, despite our signature on the Nuremburg and Hague Conventions. Somehow waterboarding wasn't torture. Somehow the Dept of Justice concluded that the people following orders cannot be prosecuted, even though that defense didn't work for the Germans in WW2.
In 2007 Obama campaigned for president saying all the right things - "Change you can believe in" the "Fierce urgency of Now", "Audacity of Hope" and on and on. Many had high hopes, based on this rhetoric, that this up and coming constitutional law professor and community organizer would restore integrity and dignity to the highest levels of government. That has not happened.
In addition to going back on numerous campaign pledges (ie: closing Guantanamo, the public option for health care, drug re-importation, allowing the Bush tax cuts to lapse) Obama has declined to investigate or prosecute the known crimes of his predecessor. He has furthered the power of the unitary executive by eroding civil rights and habeus corpus even more than his predecessor. His economic rhetoric flies high, but his actions don't extend beyond protecting the interests of the financial sector. Despite the fraud-driven collapse of the mortgage securitization industry, his Attorney General Eric Holder has not prosecuted anybody significant. Perhaps Obama's heart is in the right place, I don't know. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and, if our leaders can walk the talk, we. can. do. better.
When one steps back and squints at all this it's hard to escape the conclusion that American Leadership has lost touch with its core principals and lost its way - candidate Obama certainly seemed to articulate that in 2008. One of these core principals is the uniform standard of justice - that blindfolded lady holding up the scales, bringing impartial prosecution of law breakers, and holding them to account. Somehow it has become OK to decide when to enforce the law and when not to. My belief is that when a government official decides on their own not to investigate wrongdoing or enforce a law, they actually become a de-facto collaborator or co-conspirator with those lawbreakers.
The breadth and scope of the ongoing economic meltdown has yet to be understood. But the tacit "looking the other way" reaction of Obama only serves to perpetuate the culture of fraud. How did non-enforcement of securities law become the norm? Numerous books have been published that detail the wholesale fraud and corruption on the part of mortgage brokers, forclosure mills, rating agencies, and investment banks. Widespread corruption and systemic conspiracies were and are the norm. The evidence is everywhere, but for the most part you won't see it on TV. Where is the President? Congress? the Media?
So even though I lost my political virginity eleven years ago, I am only now recognizing how pervasive the epidemic of fraud & corruption has become. We now approach a national election with NO MENTION of this, and I simply cannot partake of this election. I can no longer watch TV news of any kind (yes, even Rachel - way too much Mitt & Newt to stomach). I am way more interested in the news that's not printed than in the "news" that is printed.
In all this darkness the only ray of hope - the only positive trend between me and despair, is the Occupy Movement. May it grow and thrive. May its uncompromising message inspire the hearts of those who know we can do better. And may that inspiration become contagious. Happy MLK day!!