WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to CNN:
Edward Snowden is one of us. Bradley Manning is one of us. They are young, technically minded people from the generation that Barack Obama betrayed. They are the generation that grew up on the Internet, and were shaped by it.
Assange has put in to words something I’ve been mulling over since news broke that Snowden was being charged by the US government for theft, conversion of government property and espionage.
(For the record, while I understand why the government feels like it has to charge Snowden, it makes me sick to my stomach. This country was started by guys with balls like Snowden’s, and now many are calling for his punishment or even death.)
I voted for Obama in 2012. I would have in 2008, but I waited until Election Day and then my son was being born. While I didn’t go crazy with the “Hope” message, I believed Obama could — and would — usher in changes that would undo some of the craziness put in place by George W. Bush.
However, Obama has also continued — and in the case of PRISM, helped strengthen — the policies and programs put in place by his predecessor. Afghanistan is still a mess. We still don’t give everyone the right to share insurance based on who they married. Immigration reform is still a joke in many ways.
Overall, I still give Obama a thumbs-up, but the last several weeks have really drilled in to me that he’s not all that different. He’s just a man. He’s just a man who plays the game; he just plays it better than most. The reality is that our two-party system doesn’t allow big, drastic changes all that often. That’s a good thing, most of the time.
But it’s frustrating.
A country shouldn’t spy on its people in the name of national security. Everyone should enjoy the benefits of a legal marriage, regardless of their orientation. People should be able to come in to our country and make a future for their families.
For now, I’ll go kiss my son goodnight, knowing that the world he is growing up in isn’t all that different after five years of an Obama presidency.
But at least I know he’ll always have insurance, despite his cancer diagnosis. It really is a shame that not everyone can enjoy such benefits from Obama’s time in office.