Memoirs of a Godless Heathen: Now Endorses Nader

My friend Brian drops in pretty often and shares his opinion. For some reason, I don’t always pay attention to the detail about the contributer (like, if they have a blog or not). It just so happens that Brian does have a nice blog and unsurprisingly has a great talent for writing. His blog is called ‘Memoirs of a Godless Heathen‘ and worth the visit.

He told me a while back that he was changing his mind about Obama, but now that I got over my brain fart, I saw that he wrote a nice post about it here. But to share it…

WANTED: Change I Can Really Believe In

I was an Obama supporter since he announced his candidacy. I believed the Illinois senator really represented change. He was a breath of fresh air, a junior senator, not corrupted by the politics of Washington. A political “outsider” is what this country really needs. Barack was tenacious, ready to challenge the status quo, until this FISA thing started happening.

The FISA Amendments Bill of 2008 gives retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that violated the 4th amendment on orders from the NSA. It also, however, requires that warrants be obtained for any foreign wiretapping from a special FISA court. In emergencies, the wiretapping can be done without a warrant, but the paperwork must be filed within the week. This is a return to the previous conditions of the original 1978 FISA Act, with the exception of immunity.

Obama initially opposed the immunity of a bill, and pledged to support the removeal of that provision. However, after gaining the endorsement of Rahm Emmanuel, a Congressman from his home state of Illinois, Obama did an about-face and supported the bill, immunity included.

Barack Obama did precisely what he pledged not to do: give in to the powers of Washington. He had the opportunity to co-sponsor the removal of immunity, but did not do so. What was his reasoning? To keep the people of America “safe.” Sorry, Senator Obama, we’ve heard that song and dance before, from the other side of the aisle.

Safety is an illusion. There is no way that anyone can be totally safe from anything, including terrorism. For someone who was supposedly a “constitutional lawyer,” Mr. Obama must not have payed much attention to the 4th amendment. It clearly bans all warrantless searches, period. Any warrantless wiretap of the phone of an American citizen is against the highest law of the land. The entire concept of FISA is illegal when it comes to American citizens, and now Obama is throwing in his support for it.

For a while I didn’t know where to turn. I don’t like John McCain or Barack Obama, I disagree with Bob Barr’s libertarian policies, and I’m really turned off by the radical pseudoscience-based environmental whackiness behind Cynthia McKinney’s campaign. Really the only candidate I have left is Ralph Nader.

I know, just a few weeks ago I made a post mocking his bumbling statements about Obama, but I can forgive an unresearched rant here and there. I can overlook Nader’s attitude towards nuclear power. What I cannot overlook is Obama’s willing to appease people who are clearly in the wrong about surveillance and wiretapping. I cannot tolerate his compromise. I cannot tolerate it because I know this is only the beginning.

If Obama can reverse himself so easily on this issue, what about all the others? Instead of pushing national health care for all citizens, I see Obama more likely to buckle under the pressure of the powers-that-be. Obama now represents the current tendency of the Democratic party to appease and yield to drum up votes rather than stick with principles. I understand he’s trying to get the support of the swing voters, but quite frankly being on the right side of this issue is more important.

Thus, I can no longer throw in my support for Obama. He can no longer count on my vote (the very first one I will ever cast) in November. I am now supporting Ralph Nader for President. Mr. Nader is the most compatible with my sensibilities. His unyielding advocacy for freedom of the American people makes him the most desirable of all the candidates.

So am I wasting my vote? I don’t think so. I realize that Nader will not win, but voting for the winner is not what a voter should strive for. I am voting for the person who I believe can best do the job. This November, I will have the satisfaction of voting for someone I like, rather than the lesser of two evils. I may be just one vote, but breaking the hold of this two-party system requires people like me to make the choice to do so.

Will I be helping John McCain’s campaign? No, because I will not be voting for John McCain. If Ralph Nader was not a choice, I would not vote, plain and simple. Thus, I am not taking a vote away from Obama, since I wouldn’t have voted for him anyway.

So good luck Ralph, you got my vote.