Faith in Change Through Obama is Delusional Fancy

If I have made the title of this article provocative in its challenge to Obama supporters, it is because Obama's most fervent supporters have been shockingly unprovocative in their easy acceptance of the conventional narrative about their leader.  Let me make this clear, though: I am not saying that the idea of change through Obama is purely a delusional fancy.  What I do believe is that faith in change through Obama is purely a delusional fancy.

Surely, President Obama is bringing about a good deal of positive change.  Today, for example, he's expected to reverse the idiotic Bush policy of not allowing states to regulate the fuel efficiency of cars sold within their borders.  We all will benefit from this decision.

Not everything is changing when it comes to the transition between the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration, however.  Let's take the issue of warrantless wiretapping as an example.  As a senator, Barack Obama placed him right in the middle of that mess by voting for the FISA Amendments Act, which legalized the practice of government spying without a search warrant or any other real form of judicial control.  The FISA Amendments Act places the Attorney General in charge of both the warrantless spying and the oversight of the spying.  That's like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

Since the passage of the FISA Amendments Act, it's been revealed that these spy powers have been used against American soldiers, to eavesdrop, record and even transcribe the intimate telephone calls they have with their spouses.  Now, former National Security Agency employee Russell Tice says that the FISA Amendment Act's spy powers were used to spy on American journalists. That's protecting Americans from terrorists.  It's just plain abuse of power.

Yet, now that Barack Obama is President, he says that he wants to keep these spy programs in place.  His Attorney General, Eric Holder, says that he wants to keep the spy program active too.  That's not change.  It's the same old unconstitutional authoritarianism that we had under George W. Bush.  It was wrong under Bush and wrong under Obama.

Democrats and other progressives need to remember that, as much as they like Barack Obama, he is now the most powerful person on the planet.  That means that he needs to be scrutinized, not just given fawning adulation.

Faith in change through the election of Barack Obama is a delusional fancy.  President Obama might change the easy things on his own, but on the tougher issues, he'll need to be watched, and pushed even by his own supporters.  Faith in political leaders, after all, will always be betrayed by their self-interest.