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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (107544)	1/18/2012 12:34:09 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 149317

What is baffling to me is how quickly everyone forgets how Autocracy takes hold and how quickly Americans are to give up the foundation of those freedoms. If you think we can rely on all of our future leaders to be men of goodwill who won't abuse their new powers, then you are sadly mistaken. We need Constitutional, written Law, and legal precedent to be in place to NOT allow one man to make decisions that would affect another. Only our Judicial system should have the power to do the kinds of things Obama has signed into law for the Executive Branch. My mother is a person of high principles. One time I was talking to her and was on my high horse talking to her derisively about someone else who gave up their values when the going got tough. She put me in my place really quickly. She told me that I had no right to criticize, because no one knows how deep their values run until they are tested. Values she said go to the core of who you are. If they are true values, then no outside pressure or seduction can sway you from your values. Well, my values include the following: * I'm against torture. Full stop. * I'm against warrantless search and seizure, surveillance, and detention of American citizens. * I'm against military tribunals for American citizens. * I'm against the President being able to unilaterally decide that an American citizen is an enemy and then order his/her assassination. * I am against anything that would harm an American citizen without due process of law and the full protections of the Constitution being afforded him/her. My values have stayed consistent during the recent turmoil. But it is clear that the value of civil liberties that Democrats have championed relentlessly for decades has now been thrown into the toilet. Obama is the first Democrat in a very long while to shit on our civil liberties, and just because he's the man you all voted for, you give him a pass. It shows that your true values don't include civil liberties. Your true values lie in Party loyalty. You might as well be in Communist China, where Party Loyalty is what is prized. I refuse to go along with this. It's wrong and we will all pay for it one day. In our fight against our enemies, we need to at least try not to become like them. "What profits a man to gain the world and lose his soul?" Anyway, I'm done discussing it. I know where most of you on this thread stand. But you are wrong. You are very wrong. And I pray to God that you don't find out just how wrong you are. Hopefully, future leaders come to their senses and restore both the rule of law and our Constitutional freedoms before it is too late. But the probability of that is lower than the probability now of getting an over-zealous leader in the future who will use those powers to become a Dictator. Welcome to your adaptation. This time, it's most definitely for the worst.