After watching the actions of the 112th Congress, I have decided for the safety and emotional well-being of my family that I am stopping most of my political action.
If you're interested as to why that is, please continue reading below the break.
After months of seeing the most bitterly divided Congress in a while, I got fed up. I got tired of the Republicans not doing anything more than trying to remove Obama from office, using the US's flagging economy as a weapon. Then I saw the GOP actively enacting poll tax measures in several states to keep the riff-raff from voting unless they could afford to do so. Then in Septemeber, Occupy Wall Street started and I was moved at a viceral level. Time to bring the fight to the Haves that are standing on the necks of the Have-Nots and telling them to keep taking it.
In October, I marched on the Fed here in St Louis with several hundread others who also were tired of the additional rules that were added to the political game to exclude as many others as possible. We then established camp at Kierner Plaza, firmly happy in the knowledge that we were excercizing our Right to Assemble on public property. Then in November, it was brought to my attention that this right did not exist since a Suprime Court decision in 1986 after a group of citizens camped out in DC to bring attention to the issue of homelessness.
I continued to support the Occupy movement after that in a less direct way. I'd bring them supplies that I donated, helped to collect items from the encampment when the police cleared the park on November 11th and did still try to reach out to those who didn't quite understand why folks would put themselves in harm's way in the manner that Occupy was doing.
All of this ground to a screeching halt with the passage and signing into law of the NDAA. Between the House and Senate, they managed to get the President to sign into law the ability to incarcerate anyone with ties to al Qida, the Taliban or ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION that 'threatened' or carried out violence against the US or its Allied States.
After 'assurances' that this would never be used against 'lawful citizens' and that this was 'to protect' me and my family that I recieved from Senator McCaskill I decided that she lost my vote. Just when I was getting ready to find out who I could support to replace her, several other bills started making their way through Congress. The Enemy Expatriation Act is one such bill.
So, with a tip of my hat I bid Occupy adeiu. With the increasing amount of violence that is erupting from various parts of the Occupy Movement - whether its from Agent Provacuers or not is irrelevant - my family could be torn apart due to my involvment. I have a wife that is a Resident Alien ($1k more to pay the feds before she's a Citizen) who would be deported and a 10 year old son that would end up a ward of the courts if I were to be linked to a 'terrorist' organization.
If this government is willing to play fast and loose with finances, how long before they excersize their ability to detain those found to be 'subversives'?
The terrorists won.