meet the new politics, just like the old politics

When was the last time, post-Washington, that you ever heard of a president or a federal government relinquishing a power, regardless of where or when that power came from?

Well, the current administration is no different.

One of Bush’s critics takes offense at the current administrations failure to reverse the very same invasions of privacy and failure of due process abuses that now-President Obama once campaigned against.

Which is why, among other reasons, I was wary of such things as the Patriot Act and other privileges the previous administration claimed to need. Plenty of conservatives defended Bush’s ever-growing executive powers because they believed it was necessary in the fight against terrorism and they trusted him not to misuse them. This is incredibly short-sighted – as I pointed out to some friends at the time, ‘your guy’ will not always be in office, and do you really want your ideological opponents and whoever else may hold that position for the life of the republic to have those powers?

(Speaking of life of the Republic...story is that the DHS now consider that members of groups promoting the rights and powers of states are ‘right-wing extremists’ and potentially dangerous. So much for the Republic. I welcome debate on whether we’re heading to true democracy or towards oligarchy).

I’m feeling pretty justified regarding my cynicism about politicians in general and one Chicago politician in particular…not that I wouldn’t prefer to be wrong! I don’t, however, think that it will be very easy for this guy to hold on to a second term if anyone even half-decent can be found to oppose him. He’s already proven to be completely tone-deaf with regards to the Vatican, disabled persons, British leadership, pro-lifers, muslims, personal liberties activists, French President Sarkozy, and more. I took some flak before the election from friends that thought I was being partisan and ignorant in my reservations about Obama (the partisan thing is funny, since I’m not even able to vote). Isn’t this a time for Unity?? Change?? Hope??

But we can’t have any of those things – Unity, Change, Hope – if we are not agreed upon what we are hoping for, what we want to change, and unless we have some substantial common ground to unite upon. Without real work to address real differences all of these words are empty, meaningless show and puffery.

So there. I rarely write about politics, since there are so many other voices out there, most of them with more time and greater inclination to follow each and every intricacy. Every once in a while though it spills over, usually when I have it confirmed for me once again that the qualities necessary to attain power and the qualities necessary to wield it well and justly are rarely, if ever, co-existant in the same man. There is no place for another President Washington in Washington, DC.