There is a time and a place for politicking. Our electoral system requires considerable politicking to gain office. It often means tempering one's views while campaigning, perhaps minimizing certain views before certain audiences. That's simply an inescapable political reality. Barack Obama is campaigning, and if he shades and slightly bends his basic views here and there, I understand. I don't fault him for doing so. The naked realities of running for office often intrude. We simply have to hold our nose and ignore those realities.
There also is a time and place for honor and dedication to upholding the basic principles of constitutional democracy. If one so acts as to deliberately undermine what little is left of our constitutional democracy, it's unacceptable. There's a time when all politicking must be flushed as more important matters prevail.
John Stuart Mill in his magnificent work, 'On Liberty', used a metaphor that has been endlessly repeated in discussions surrounding the American democracy and the constitution that supposedly enshrines our basic liberties. He wrote that each individual in a true democracy exists within an invisible circle that demarcates an inviolable sphere of human freedom. The Bill of Rights tried to enunciate some of the rights believed to lie within the sacred circle that Mills later wrote about.
Privacy is absolutely, clearly, and undeniably one of the rights that exists within Mill's famous metaphorical circle. In a true democracy, it must be untouchable. Exactly when it is being violated can sometimes be murky, and this has to be wrestled with by jurists; however, in the vast majority of cases, it is quite clear when the sacred circle and one's privacy have been invaded by an overreaching government.
The Bush administration chose to secretly, blatantly, and immorally violate the invisible circle so beautifully evoked in Mill's classic work. When Bush openly sought to formalize an invasion of constitutionally protected privacy by allowing corporations and the secret police of our government to listen in on everyday conversations of American citizens, he crossed a line ---- a huge line, a sacred barrier, a dearly held protection Americans died for in the Revolutionary War.
Patrick Henry told his fellow framers of the Constitution, 'Give me liberty, or give me death.' That's how important the basic freedoms the framers were enshrining were for this fervent patriot. Those basic freedoms were worth dying for according to this man and would also be for the countless Americans who would one day bleed to death on Omaha Beach.
Such deeply felt principles do not take second place to politicking except among the most craven, cowardly, and opportunistic hacks. I know that many of my progressive friends and allies will not take kindly to my characterizing Barack Obama and his recent crass politicking in the US Senate with such strong language. Well, I'm truly sorry about that, but we all have to draw a line somewhere. I know where I draw that line --- and he crossed it.
I draw a passionately held line when it comes to my constitutionally protected right to privacy. I should further add that I also draw a line between naked politicking and normal legislative debate over the passage of all federal laws. Laws born out of pure politicking in the halls of Congress are always disgraceful, and when they also seriously damage the American Constitution, they become ugly apostasies.
Obama has crossed crossed both those lines. I now simply sense that I could never trust this man with great executive power. He has now openly and grossly abused his power as a lawmaker. That hardly qualifies him for being given vastly more power in the executive branch.
As that tired only saw known as the 'lesser of two evils' is thrown into my face, my answer will be that you still end up with a political hack in the White House if you choose one manipulative hack over another.
I was once told that a deeply corrupt Arkansas Governor by the name of Bill Clinton was a lesser of two evils. Well, everything Bill Clinton did as president was geared to increasing his power. To keep and enlarge that power, he was willing to do incalculable damage to the American welfare system, all but destroy decent healthcare for the great masses of Americans, and betray the same gay population that saved his campaign when it was broke and floundering. He was a perfect example of what a megalomaniacal person will do when placed in the White House.
Obama walks like a Clinton, talks like a Clinton, and quacks like a Clinton.
I rest my case.
-###-
July 15, 2008 Richard Franklin is the Publisher-author of Franklin's Focus, a daily opinion piece and the author of 'The Mythology of Self Worth; Using Reason to Dispel the Fallacies that Trigger Needless Anxiety, Depression, and Anger'
