When I was growing up under the Bush regime, I thought that I could always rely upon the Democrats to consistently oppose an imperial foreign policy and its consequent violations of individual rights. Every time a bomb would fall on the home of an innocent family, from Baghdad to Kabul, liberal Democrats could be counted on to prevent the Republicans from sweeping the incident under the rug as "collateral damage."

Liberal Democrats were also reliable and consistent partners in defending the American people from the domestic spillover of these policies. They were fierce and vociferous defenders of civil liberties in assailing the Patriot Act, which authorizes the federal government to spy without warrant on American citizens' communications.

Guantanamo Bay, the off-coast torture center of the Bush regime, also came under regular attack from the American political left-and properly so. They understood the notion of "innocent until proven guilty," and favored the concomitant humane justice system.
Under Bush, the War on Drugs, which apprehends disproportionate amounts of minorities and is single handedly responsible for America's record-setting prison population, was under constant attack by liberal Democrats. The American Left effectively communicated the absurdity, futility and evil of these policies. A policy that seeks to protect people from risk by harming them-putting them in  prisons-is neither moral nor practical. Further, national Democrats were calling for marriage equality, defending the right of consenting adults to freely associate. Under Bush, liberal Democrats' rhetoric heralded a bright future for civil liberties and a sane foreign policy.

After President Obama's election in 2008, amid partisan bickering over the new administration's agenda and a struggling economy, these issues were all but forgotten by the national Democrats. Despite President Obama's meeker rhetoric and humbler approach to foreign policy, for which he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize (on credit, it seems), his administration's actions have been no less belligerent than those of his predecessor's. In terms of foreign policy, 2008 to 2012 may as well have been Bush's third term.

The war in Iraq no longer makes headlines, but violence rages on. The Shiite-led government installed by America faces strong opposition from the Sunnis, and the two factions frequently clash during bloody protests. Many American troops have been withdrawn, but only because a multi-billion dollar embassy fortress is being built to cement our occupation of Iraq for years to come. In other words, Obama simply completed what Bush started.

In Afghanistan, whether we see troop surges or withdrawals, one thing remains constant: the "end date" of the war continues to be pushed back. Our futile involvement in the region has endured for over a decade, and while the "boots on the ground" have been less active, the drones in the sky have been busier than ever before.

The Obama regime's terroristic drone policy in the Middle East ought to be morally condemned from all sides. This bloody campaign is particularly horrifying in Pakistan, where it kills just one terrorist for every 49 innocent people of "collateral damage"-human beings whose only "crime" is being in the same place as someone suspected of terrorist activity. If that wasn't sickening enough, the drone operators have borrowed tactics from Hamas, and engage in "double-tapping" targets-they bomb the emergency responders who come to tend to those wounded by the first bombing.

Is the murder of emergency responders suddenly morally acceptable to liberal Democrats? What about the 178 dead children who have been murdered by these strikes? Has the murder of innocents become acceptable, or have the Democrats become so accustomed to playing politics that they've forgotten their virtuous principles?

Closing down Guantanamo Bay was a rallying cry of "Hope and Change"-but then fighting barbaric torture was deemed impractical. The sadistically-named Patriot Act was once properly reviled by the Democrats-until President Obama signed its renewal. The Democrats righteously defended even a non-American terrorist's right to a trial-until President Obama signed Section 1021 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act into law, effectively revoking Americans' right to a trial by jury if they are merely suspected of terroristic activity.

President Obama sat back as the Drug Enforcement Agency ramped up the War on Drugs; under him, it has raided more legal medicinal marijuana dispensaries than under Bush. With a simple order instructing the DEA to obey state law under the 10th Amendment (the course taken towards Colorado and Washington), President Obama could have prevented thousands of medical patients from being forced to suffer through the horrors of chemotherapy, chronic pain, and other diseases.

One of these raids which President Obama could have prevented resulted in 23-year-old University of California, San Diego student Daniel Chong's abandonment in a DEA holding cell with nothing to drink except his own urine, and nothing to eat but methamphetamine-presumably left in the cell by a prior occupant.

After five days of unanswered screams for help, Chong was finally discovered clinging to life-bleeding from his wrists after attempting to slash them with his glasses and bleeding internally from attempting to eat the broken glass after his failed attempt to put an end to his methamphetamine and starvation-induced misery.

Is this the "compassionate drug policy" that we hoped for? Under his own policies, a younger Barack Obama could have suffered this same horrific (but legal) abuse-simply for smoking marijuana in a dorm.

The show of electoral politics is over. Unconditional support for the president isn't a strategic necessity. Obama's second term agenda will be determined by his base. Will the liberal Democrats be satisfied with simply seeing a Democrat in office, even if the next four years of social and foreign policy issues basically resemble the Bush years? Democrats, from the national level down to campus clubs, must hold the Obama administration accountable on these issues.

Their choice of action is simple: tacitly approve neoconservatism, or demand progress. If liberal Democrats truly believe in civil liberties and oppose an imperial foreign policy, now is the time to prove it. Put up, or shut up.
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