"We" elected a war criminal, by any definition that matters. It's on record*. He sent lawyers to argue, openly, that it is his full and unquestionable right to (to paraphrase Arthur Silber) murder anyone, anywhere, at any time, for any reason (or for no reason at all)--and to do so entirely in secret. And he has done so, repeatedly. (He also sent lawyers to claim the right to indefinitely detain anyone, anywhere, at any time, etc...but with the right to just whack someone, does detention really matter?) From all that I can tell, almost nobody seems to care about this, or even acknowledge or know about it. Even most of the (for lack of a better word) "liberty sphere" seems more agog about the possibility of the detaining than about the actuality of the killing.
Now, consider that the electoral block that got this man elected--either directly via their v*tes, or indirectly because of their pimping and salesmanship. By their own account, these are people who are "awake", "aware", and otherwise fully in command of their world and how to make it a better place with "correct" politics. (They'll tell you this.) They are also the self-appointed standard-bearers for peace in our time, and the irreplaceable bulwark against the total destruction of society by imperious warmongers and tramplers of civil liberties.
Ahem. (Ping!)
When this block got Obama elected the first time, the key to his success was entirely his claim to be nothing like his predecessor. Cries of "war criminal!" were used constantly to attack the truly awful incumbent, and by association his own opponent, chosen by the incumbent's rival intramural gang to continue the horrors. And, of course, it worked.
Now...you may have noticed that, since Election Day 2008, the term "war crime" has been completely missing in action. This is well past "curious", since (again to quote Silber, emphasis in original):
Every blogger and writer who is conscious and even fractionally honest now acknowledges that Obama has doubled down on every single policy of Bush's that the progressives had condemned so loudly and for so long. Moreover, Obama has gone beyond Bush's profoundly awful record in certain critical respects. And never, ever forget that Obama and his administration claim the "right" to murder anyone in the world, wherever he or she may be, for whatever reason they choose -- or for no reason at all.
Again, this is all on record. (Say what you want about the demonically vile Dubya, but at least he had enough of an understanding of basic humanity to try and hide his worst crimes. This administration argues and defends the same and worse, openly.)
And yesterday, the Defenders Of All That Is Good, the "awake and aware" crowd who Care About You, the ones who most loudly declare "only through your action can you make a difference", protected us from a potential war criminal...by re-electing a proven one. (For any of those Enlightened Beings who don't understand: it's just like the re-election of Bush in '04, with the intrasquad teams reversed.)
Oh, I've no doubt that Romney would have made a most enthusiastic war criminal and trampler of individual liberty. (Those are the only campaign promises that you really can count on.) But here's "lesser of evils" in the starkest possible relief: over sixty million people v*ted to elect a known war criminal. (And almost sixty million more people v*ted for his functional twin with a different team mascot. That's at least 120 million v*tes endorsing the embrace of war crimes. Wow! Do you have any doubt that the Establishment got this message loud and clear?)
Because, you know, if we don't act now! to prevent it, we could get someone really awful to wield Absolute Power on our behalf.
If anyone needs more than this to conclude that politics causes otherwise normal people to completely lose their fucking minds, brother, ain't nothing I can do to help you.
And so now, whether or not "we" deserve what we're going to get, we most certainly will get what we asked for.
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* If any of this is new to you, you really should look it up. I'd lay it out here, again, but I suspect that the reality is that if you need me to lay it out for you, you'd write off anything I had to say anyway. Look it up for yourself.
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