by Thomas Craig
Recently, every time I watch or read the news I am bombarded by a string of Republicans who are so anti-Obama that they insist on criticizing every single action that the President makes. There were even pundits going into a rage about such ridiculousness as the new puppy that the Obama's received. Now, I don't want you to worry that I am suddenly turning left in my political views. I am still as Republican as ever. That being said, we need to take it down a notch. There is a difference between intellectual and reasonable debate about the President's actions and pathetically attacking any and all actions merely for the sake of being "anti-Obama". Let us take two recent events. First, we have the recent release of the CIA memos showing that the USA did in fact torture both proven and alleged terrorists. Ever since those memos were released, there have been hordes of Republicans screaming about the risk of letting our enemies know what we will and will not do to them. Instead of worrying about that, can we instead try to focus on the fact that the United States of America, the beacon of hope and freedom in this world, has for the last seven years been torturing human beings? I don't care who the human beings are. We turned our back not only on one of the principles to which this Nation was founded, but to the very idea of America. Republican, Democrat, or anyone else who calls themselves an American has a duty to condemn those actions. History will remember the last few years for such violations of the Constitution and our descendants will question our complacency over it, much like we do when we look back at slavery in the last two centuries.
We also need to calm down on the rhetoric regarding the President's recent attempts at improving ties with Cuba and Venezuela. I, nor anyone else, could ever possibly condone the actions and the lack of freedom in both of those Nations. I don't like these two Countries anymore than I like China. It is difficult for me to believe, however, that we cannot only befriend China but become its number one customer economically, yet we can't reach out to even speak to Castro or Chavez. By closing off ties with those Nations, we are hurting ourselves financially and allowing both regimes to open their lands to hostile places such as Russia and Iran. Our policy should be similar to our policies with China, Saudi Arabia, or Russia. We don't approve of their actions, however, for the sake of peace we will at least answer their phone calls. Doing so might even bring some good such as allowing us to promote capitalism (much like China) and giving us a foothold in potential safe havens for anti-American entities.
The point is, we do not need to throw mud on every single thing that the President does, especially because the current Republican Leaders say so. Remember, it is the current Republican Leaders who have brought our Party to its knees and have dropped the ball countless times over the last eight years. Let's use our heads when watching the actions of the President. We have PLENTY of material to fuel our anger and it is our patriotic duty to watch and question everything that our President does. All I ask is to just remember that simply because President Obama does it, it does not mean it is automatically wrong.
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