According to an article in the New York Times published on Wednesday, President Obama held a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder, and human rights advocates, to discuss the possibility of a system of “preventive detention” of suspected terrorists. The president seeks to establish new legal precedents which will allow those who are deemed terrorists and threats to national security to be held without charge, and without access to legal council. Yes, we can. Yes, we can throw out roughly eight hundred years of Anglo-American legal precedent and further destroy our constituional and human rights by implementing systems of preventive detention for those who are deemed to be a threat, but have yet to act or break any of our laws.
The reversals of the Obama administration, especially considering the campaign rhetoric which enticed people to vote for him like such good agitprop, are stunning. We’ve made the allusions to the Bush administration, the Patriot Act, and the war to creeping totalitarianism and deadly threats to our freedoms in the past. However, Obama made is way to office with the promise of hope and change; promises which by his deeds are shown to have been empty, or outright lies. The new administration is quickly squandering the political capital it had in January by betraying those who took to the streets and put in long hours to support him.
Mr. Obama, you have shown that the only change you brought to the White House was a change of clothes.
