President Obama ran on a platform designed entirely to do exactly the opposite thing that George Bush had done in his two terms. While the health care system sucked the money from the sick people's pockets, Obama promised to devise a health care system to fix that, which he has tried to do, however poorly. Obama promised a troop withdrawal from Iraq after five years of stagnant military action. He has, as of recently, announced troop withdrawal, only to have them shipped right next door to Afghanistan. But Obama also promised to stop the Constitution-shredding that took place during the Bush administration. This post was derived in largepart from a post I read online concering Obama's civil liberties track record. My dad directed me to a blogger he knew of on salon.com , named Glenn Greenwald, who blogged religiously about current civil liberties issues. Here is the quote that really inspired me to write this post:
"Of all the things for an incumbent President of the United States to take political risks fighting for, obviously reducing the power of the executive branch is going to be dead last on the list. If you want to see civil liberties championed, that’s going to have to come from congress."
There are several big ticket items that Obama had on his agenda coming into this term, but for me to think that enforcing the very constitution that he swore to uphold is last on it was very troublesome to me. I understand that fixing these issues takes time, so I will not pass any harsh judgement yet, but I think we're letting Barrack off the hook a little too easy. In my mind, filling the gaps of the consitution that had been drilled into by the Bush administration is a high profile issue, and has to be taken care off. Is it just me, or should civil liberties be taken more seriously by the president? What topics on Obama's agenda do you consider the most important? Consider what topics you should would like to see focused on in Washington. These are all important questions to wonder as we will all be eligible to vote in the 2012 elections.
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I definitely agree that enforcing the constitution and filling in the gaps left behind by the Bush Administration should be higher up on his list of things to do. Yes, I understand that he has a lot of work to do overseas, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but what about the home front? We have been talking about civil liberties in wartimes in class as of late, and I think that unless President Obama can readily enforce the constitution he is going to slip into the same pattern as past presidents: abridging civil liberties in perilous times.
ReplyDeleteI agree that his promises have been broken and we should be pressing him on them, but not right now. We have to give him some time to situate himself and alot of the things he promised take alot of time. He has decided to concentrate on a couple of things, such as the war on Afghanistan and health care, instead of spreading himself to thin to early in his presidency. Bush passed alot of laws limiting civil liberties and it will take time for Obama to adress and change these laws. Good post though
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