Obama and Hitler

Dear Mr. President,

We have truly descended into a Kafkaesque reality of Orwellian doublethink. One of your Department of InJustice lawyers has argued before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that a judgment against the government for illegally wiretapping a lawyer’s privileged telephone conversations with his client in Saudi Arabia should be overturned based on the government’s contention that it cannot be sued and that the aggrieved can only sue individuals. But, your guy in InJustice added, if the aggrieved decides to sue the FBI Director, they would invoke the state secrets privilege which means the case could not come before any court. If the 9th Circuit Court decides in favor of the government, wiretapping will be unchecked and unrestricted. One after another our freedoms are being taken away, our privacy violated and ever more power is being assumed by the state. 43 presidents before you—make that 42—have more or less honored the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and international and domestic law, but not you, Mr. President. Instead, you have gutted the Constitution, ignored the rule of law and cloaked government actions in an impenetrable veil of secrecy. In a recent article, Ray McGovern pointed out that Hitler amassed dictatorial power “largely because of a supine Parliament, an acquiescent Church, a careerist Army leadership, and a fearful populace.” The parallel with present-day America is striking. The same conditions prevail and you have turned the CIA into a paramilitary force that assassinates individuals on your ‘Kill Lists’, Targeted Assassinations and drone wars are now accepted policy, and legislation has been passed allowing indefinite incarceration without legal recourse of anyone anywhere, including American citizens. America’s police forces have been militarized and armed to the teeth, ready, willing and able to suppress dissent in the most brutal and violent way. These are indeed fearful times Mr. President, and I am one of the fearful. But not of Al Qaeda terrorists. Rather, I fear my own government. America is no longer a free democracy but a plutocracy, no longer a land of opportunity but a land of broken promises and shattered dreams, a land of inequality and injustice. Power, it has been said, is delicious and addictive, and as you learn to wield it, the world we live in gets more dangerous and ever more frightening. I have nearly lost hope. There is a darkness coming that is foreboding and you are leading us directly into it.