Droning on about the drones. Obama is killing Americans without due process. Yawn.
Ha! Just kidding! I bet you thought that just because I support Obama that I must also support the killing of Americans without due process.
Glenn Greenwald thinks so:
"The sharpest edges of President Obama’s counterterrorism policy, including the use of drone aircraft to kill suspected terrorists abroad and keeping open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have broad public support, including from the left wing of the Democratic Party."
OMG! Do I support this? How can this be? I didn't support this during the Bush years. What makes it different now?
This is a question Glenn Greenwald was wondering too when he posted an article on Salon.com in which he argued that the left wing of the Democratic Party are being hypocritical, repulsively so, because they are supporting some of the Obama administration's counterterrorism policies, policies that are eerily similar to or go further than those of the Bush/Cheney era.
Glenn writes:
"A new poll shows deep support among liberals for the very Bush/Cheney policies they once pretended to despise...It’s hard to imagine that Dems and liberals would approve of such policies in quite these numbers if they had been authored by George W. Bush."
In other words, Greenwald bases his argument on the fact that just because a liberal is doing it we automatically support it and this therefore pre-supports an argument he made back in 2006:
"Whether one is a “liberal” — or, for that matter, a “conservative” — is now no longer a function of one’s actual political views, but is a function purely of one’s personal loyalty to George Bush. . . ."
Now, I don't work for Salon or have the political clout that Mr. Greenwald has, but I will say this: Glenn Greenwald is being reactionary. He is having a moment of anxiety and it is clouding his judgement. Further, he is doing what almost every other pundit and journalist always does. He is framing the issues as black and white, with a "you are either with us or against us" mentality. Thing is, the reality is once again far different from this common, simplistic view and something Mr. Greenwald fails to consider.
For example, if you poll the left about gun control you will find strong support for it. If you ask the left about Obama's economic, social and immigration policies it would be largely the same. So what's the deal with his counterterrorism policies? How is it that the left supports killing Americans without due process, keeping Gitmo open, and pushing eavesdropping or detention initiatives further than Bush/Cheney? It doesn't make sense, unless the left is doing as Greenwald suggests and are blindly supporting the President because he is one of them. Could it be that simple or could it be that the left is actually experiencing or reacting to something far deeper than what Glenn finds on the surface?
For example, by 2006 Bush had anointed himself a war-time president. He did this after creating the very war he claimed to be fighting. Also, aside from saying he would fight steroid use in his fourth SOTU address, his two terms were nothing but noun+verb+9/11. In other words, couldn't the left's supposed support for drones just be a rection to our collective PTSD of a Bush presidency?
Next, aside from invading a country based on a lie and looking confused on 9/11, Bush stole the Presidency from Al Gore and destroyed the economy. At this rate, if Bush wanted to give everyone a puppy, the left would have said "screw you!"
I will concede, however, that Glenn is right about one thing. The left and right are similar in that we both live on a constant diet of 24/7 news where the media dictates what to care about. For example, go back and check the polls over the Bush and Obama years and look at the hot button issues. I am pretty sure you will find support, or lack thereof, based on whatever the media told us were the issues to care about, e.g. war, "keeping us safe," Benghazi, birth certificates, the economy, guns, immigrants and gays. You could add abortion to the list, but then Obama won a second term. In other words, Obama and drone strikes? Way too complicated, not sexy enough, not happening here, and not a major talking point on either side for any of the election cycles.
Bottom line, Glenn, the left are not blindly following Obama. What the left is doing is following history, past experience and what the Glenn Greenwald's of the media world are telling us to think about on a daily basis. Are we different from the right in this sense? I don't think so. For example, did Occupy Wall Street really spring from nothing or was that a direct result of the media's narrative about the economy and Wall Street? If you want passion over drones in 2013, make it so! We are not able to do that on our own. This might be tough medicine to swallow, but is it really that shocking to consider? Besides, we wanted a President who would be tough on terror and we got one. Not only that, but when Obama supports something that the right loves, like drone strikes, we on the left enjoy watching those at FOX chase their tails as they try to figure out what the hell is happening.
Greenwald went on to say:
"How any of these people can even look in the mirror, behold the oozing, limitless intellectual dishonesty, and not want to smash what they see is truly mystifying to me."
Perhaps it is Mr. Greemwald and the other's who professionally feed us the news who need to take that long look in the mirror and ask themselves if the economy today, or 9/11 in 2006, both fed to us ad nauseam, should have been the most important topics of the day. You all brought them to us on a silver platter, non stop, for years and are now surprised that we are unable to do an about face and simply be outraged about something that has not been in the forefront of our minds?
In other words, Glenn, we, the voter, are not simply and blindly supporting Dear Leader Obama just because he is one of us, and I suspect many of us do not support these and other policies. However, your not taking the time to understand that makes me wonder and worry that perhaps the one wearing blinders is you.
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