(Posters note: this is usually Skip’s territory, hopefully I’m not squatting… I’ll find out soon enough :0) [Well, more of a Notable Quote than a BlogLine, but I’m good! – Skip (hey – he asked!] )
What the mainstream media has yet to do is to connect the authoritarianism of the administration’s personnel with the authoritarianism of its policies. The two are inseparable. An administration that spies on opponents is also an administration that tries to socialise healthcare, kill US citizens with drone strikes, force churches to compromise their moral consciences, make it harder to purchase firearms and run up unimaginable levels of debt. Obama is the latest in a long line of wannabe emperors to inhabit the Oval Office, and if his presidency resembles Nixon’s then it’s because both share the view that the complexities and dangers of modern life require the executive branch and the federal government to assume levels of authority not implied by the Constitution. The only antidote to this imperialist trend is a president who willingly gives up his power – and you’d struggle to find any politician in either party who would be happy to do that.
-Dr Tim Stanley is a historian of the United States.
(Barack Obama: even the mainstream media has given up on the hopey-changey stuff)
