I'm sure I'm not the only engaged citizen who's been distractedly fuming about yesterday's Senate approval of the FISA bill giving telecom companies and the Bush administration a free pass on their crimes.
So when I received an email from MoveOn.org asking me to write a note to Senator Barack Obama, letting him know what I thought of his vote, it seemed like a good way to perhaps let go of some of this stress. Well, the note got a bit longer than I'd originally intended, but it felt good to vent.
Senator Obama,
Your decision to support the recently passed FISA legislation has been shockingly disappointing to me and many others. Apparently your campaign has done some sort of political calculus and has decided that abandoning your previously stated position and principles, and more importantly the 4th amendment to the Constitution, is worth the loss of many of your established supporters. Surely many of those who approved of your action on this issue and continue to support you in general, must view you now through more cynical and suspicious eyes -- not exactly what we all expected from the candidate of hope and change. This is the opposite of hope, it's typical Washington-style political expediency -- dishonest and short-sighted, and pursues the myth of the 'moving-to-the-center' strategy of presidential campaigning. You didn't just modify your opinion of telecom immunity, you did the opposite of what you promised this February, when you told us
"I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grass-roots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty."
Some legal experts have warned that the new FISA bill will actually give the president more power to illegally spy on American citizens, and will also send a signal to powerful corporations that they can break the law with impunity, especially when powerful bureaucrats and politicians give them permission. Now, not only will the President and the telecom companies be effectively pardoned for their crimes against Americans, but Americans will never even get to know how serious and how extensive those crimes were -- and after all of this America is not any safer, and the new FISA bill is worse than the original. So, it seems that special interests are now put ahead of security and liberty for you too.
It's been very disheartening to see you enter the presidential primaries as the kind of Democratic nominee we all want, then turn into the kind of politician we all expect.
Sincerely,
EM
I've donated to Obama, I'll vote for him, and I may even feel like giving him more financial support closer to the election, especially if McCain somehow gets closer in the polls, but for now I can't reward behavior antithetical to my principles.
I understand that there is a lot of passion from the different sides of this issue -- I'm just putting my conscience on the road here, your mileage may vary.