President Barack Obama spoke about the importance of leadership last week in his speech as he accepted the nomination for president in front of thousands of Democrats in the Time Warner Cable Arena and tens of millions of Americans watching in their living rooms.
Cheering and crying for their man Thursday night, liberals believe that this one person holds the hope for progress and will go all in for Obama. Liberalism is a rich ideology that in many ways has shaped progress for this country, like in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.
Even though it seems that Obama opposes conservatives, the president poses one of the biggest threats to liberalism and the progress it seeks to promote.
Obama is the face of today’s liberalism. He claims that he protects civil liberties, destroys cronyism and respects the rule of law. Modern liberals’ principles were perfectly depicted by his monumental speech last week.
“We're not entitled to success. We have to earn it,” Obama said in his speech.
“We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk-takers, the entrepreneurs who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity that the world's ever known.”
Liberals believe that government is essential to maintain equality in the market. They think big government is a necessary aspect of society and that laws are essential in holding government accountable and restraining misuses of power.
On foreign policy, Obama will claim victory by consistently pointing to the killing of Osama bin Laden and withdrawing troops from Iraq — which actually was just implementing a deal that former President George W. Bush had brokered in his last stages of his presidency.
It is sad to see most liberals turning a blind eye to any other aspect of this issue. Even though the campaign will spend millions of dollars to paint a picture of a peacemaker, it is clear that the Bush doctrine is the foundation for Obama’s actions around the world.
Two of the major national security accomplishments for the administration are in complete contradiction to liberal values. The National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law last year by Obama. The law grants powers to federal officials to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial; it is the first of its kind in American history.
The president also made great strides towards violating citizens’ privacy and constitutional rights by extending the Patriot Act. Among other atrocities, the reauthorization grants government officials the ability to conduct warrantless searches of homes and wiretap personal phone calls of civilians without authorization from a judge.
Obama has acted against the liberal idea of national security and foreign policy.
Democrats will support Obama’s idea of raising taxes on the rich and passing anti-corruption laws will benefit the country as a whole. The fact is that through multiple bailouts, economic stimulus bills, special deals with big business and extending a tax system that benefits the rich, Obama has made the strongest case against himself. Obama has furthered an agenda that is no different from past administrations, camouflaging his actual policies with liberal rhetoric.
Reach the columnist at calfaro2@asu.edu or follow the columnist at @AlfaroAmericano
