Now that Obama has authorized assassinating a U.S. citizen I am compelled to repeat the old verity: "We should have a government of laws and not of men."
President Obama seems to think that because his judgment is better than that of George W. Bush, it is okay to exercise unchecked executive power, even to the point of assassinating U.S. citizens.
Even if I were to agree, and trusted Obama to make the right decisions, this is entirely irrelevant. For such an executive power to exist violates the rule of law and basic American values. I cannot trust that another President after Obama would not use this power in unscrupulous ways, to silence political opposition or eliminate troublesome critics. A government of "laws, not of men" means that we don't base our decisions on trust of individuals, but on rules that apply to everyone.
This spook CIA criminality, this amoral gangland-style foreign policy, continues to undermine our country regardless of which of the two corporate parties are in power. For the President to think that there are no consequences, no blowback, for this kind of reckless, arrogant, murderous behavior is naive at best. Leaving aside all my concessions to practical politics and supposedly good intentions, I declare that is morally revolting and will surely rebound someday to our great harm.
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For such an executive power to exist violates the rule of law and basic American values. I cannot trust that another President after Obama would not use this power in unscrupulous ways, to silence political opposition or eliminate troublesome critics.
I made the same criticism of Bush's executive power grabs (for instance: the president can declare anyone an enemy combatant) and their implications. While Rove whispered sweet nothings of a "permanent Republican majority" into his ear, they ignored the obvious question: What are you guys going to do when the Democrats are in charge? Now we know the answer: the exact same thing.
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