This is a call for change, a call for a renaissance of revolutionary principles.
One glance at our current political, economic and social systems, and it’s hard not to gawk at how corrupt our system is.
We all should care about what is happening to our country because we all have to live with the consequences of not acting today.
From NSA surveillance violating your Fourth Amendment rights, to the IRS scandal, to the Justice Department subpoenaing journalists for their sources, to our numerous secret wars, to the wealth gap reaching the highest ever in our history, to Wall Street getting bailed out after wrecking the economy, to the government admitting to assassinating four Americans overseas, to the energy industry polluting indiscriminately and suing the victims and to the reality of a two tier justice system that serves the elite – we have too many major crises to sit on our ass and not do something.
Barack Obama is the worst president in my lifetime because he normalized George W. Bush’s controversial policies and made it acceptable for liberals. How a Nobel Peace Prize winning, liberal
democrat could make assassinations and drone warfare a common spear in foreign policy is beyond me.
Back in 2008, Obama was elected because after two wars and the greatest financial crisis of our time, the American people had enough and voted for change.
Fast forward five years, Obama has extended the wars to include drone and cyber warfare with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Iran.
On the other hand, instead of pushing for financial reforms that were badly needed, he allowed Wall Street to continue business as usual.
In the case of healthcare, his reform was to mandate health insurance instead of a public option. Forcing people to buy subsidized health insurance is not socialized universal healthcare.
Another major crisis – highlighted by the Dow Jones recently hitting 16,000 points – is the expanding wealth and income gap. Currently, the top 1 percent owns 40 percent of the wealth and controls 20 percent of the income. This crisis has gotten worse under Obama with 95 percent of all new income going to the top 1 percent since the financial crisis, according to research from the University of California, Berkeley.
Recently, Congress cut $40 billion from food stamps which 46 million people depend on in order to survive. Sadly, many on food stamps are Wal-Mart and fast food restaurant employees who are cruelly underpaid.
On top of the health, economic and foreign policy crises, there is also a constitutional crisis.
Since 9/11 Bush, Obama and Congress have passed draconian laws that make civil liberties almost an obsolete concept except for the elite. The Patriot Acts, Military Commissions Act, FISA bill and NDAA 2012 act are all laws that, along with Gitmo and the NSA PRISM program, limit the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth amendments.
The most shocking revelation of Obama is the fact that he authorized the assassination of four Americans overseas. Bush was in the business of capturing and torturing people – now Obama just kills them.
Timothy McVeigh was allowed his rights after he committed what was the greatest terrorist attack in U.S. history in Oklahoma City. Anwar al-Awlaki was an American citizen who was killed with an anti-tank missile with no due process for him.
We have to decide as a country that either we believe in civil rights for those we hate, or we don’t believe in them at all.
With all of these violations of civil liberties, wars, economic injustice and government corruption, it is time for revolution.
There was an attempt for revolution recently with Occupy Wall Street, which encompassed many activist groups concerned about the rightward fascist direction the country has taken.
OWS was the closest thing to a renaissance of revolutionary values and, as expected, the police cracked down and stopped them from growing.
If we give a damn about anything beyond a football game or celebrity gossip, we should turn off the TV and sports and wake up to what is happening to our country. Instead of just voting for “change” it is time to actually be the change you want to see in the world. We all should seek out to be part of the greater movement of activists seeking peaceful revolution, because as John F. Kennedy once said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
Joshua Hajiakbarifini is 24-year-old political science and economics senior from Baton Rouge.