The Power to Abuse with Impunity

Trey Smith

The most basic truth of political power — and (therefore) the core precept of the American founding — is that power exercised in secret, without checks and accountability, will be inevitably abused: not sometimes or maybe abused, but inevitably, and not only when Bad People are in power, but always, even when it involves someone so deeply and profoundly magnanimous as Barack Obama (“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty” – John Adams, Journal, 1772; ”In questions of power…let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution” – Thomas Jefferson: Kentucky Resolutions, 1798).

We know with certainty that top Obama officials such as John Brennan have blatantly lied about killing civilians with drones (along with other key national security matters). We know with certainty that the Obama administration has re-defined “militants” to include any military-age males they kill regardless of whether they were actually doing anything wrong. We know with certainty that the U.S. Government has detained and publicly branded as Terrorists people they knew at the time were innocent. We know with certainty that Pakistani teenagers have been killed by U.S. drones shortly after attending meetings to protest civilian drone deaths. We know with certainty (despite rampant secrecy) that the Obama administration is targeting rescuers of drone victims and funeral attendees who are grieving drone victims with follow-up drone attacks: clear war crimes. And we know with certainty that — despite being hailed for stopping torture and CIA black sites — the Obama administration continues, in secret, to maintain secret black sites, indefinite detention, rendition and even torture by proxy.

Given that record, only a religious-type faith in the Goodness of Barack Obama and his officials, or willful ignorance, or both, would permit someone to believe that this rampant secrecy has nothing to do with an attempt to conceal wrongdoing, ineptitude and even corruption. Even more so, this claim ignores a basic precept: secrecy is and always has been the linchpin of abuse of power. The more extreme the power is (ordering people assassinated), the more likely it is to be abused when exercised in secrecy and with no accountability.
~ from Excuses for Assassination Secrecy by Glenn Greenwald ~

Greenwald is my favorite columnist and this is one of his best and most impassioned columns to date. I strongly recommend it!

Though these aren't the ONLY reasons, they are sufficient to insure that I will not vote for Barack Obama. I simply couldn't do it in good conscience, regardless of how much good I might think he has done.