Englehart’s View by Bob Englehart
President Obama is no better than any other president who has occupied the office in recent history. Well, maybe he’s better than a couple, but power still corrupts. The Founding Fathers were genius in knowing the pitfalls of power. That’s why they limited the term to four years, and later, Congress limited the terms to two.
The Patriot Act is an end run around the Constitution. Enforcing it in secret with no transparency is antithetical to our freedoms and it’s another campaign promise Obama has broken. We need to be open and honest about what’s going on with domestic spying. Between the NSA, the FBI, the Connecticut legislature’s penchant for secret meetings, cameras on every street corner and drones, what are we the people to think? This all lends credence to the survivalists’ fears that the government is out to get us.
The whole domestic snooping thing started with J. Edgar Hoover, Tricky Dick Nixon and later, the George W. Bush administration, but that’s no solace to us now. I wish there were a viable opposition party to weigh in on this. The Republicans have no credibility as responsible critics. As annoying gadflies, yes, but as critics, no. They’ve vowed to bring down Obama from day one, but when people like me who have generally supported him say he’s gone too far, well, let’s just say it’s a new day, a day you can believe in.
