Dear Disillusionment,

I've just gone from re-watching By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, the documentary which captures so wonderfully the hope, excitement and optimism of that historic time in 2008, to watching War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State. What the hell happened?
You really know how to twist the knife, Disillusionment. Barack Obama promised change. He promised transparency and an end to the Machiavellian tactics so disgustingly utilized by the Cheney, I mean the Bush administration. But Obama has gone after more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. These whistleblowers had legitimate concerns, legitimate reasons to expose what they exposed. But they were prosecuted and put through hell. By Obama! How could this happen?
The first inkling that Obama was not going to be what people wanted him to be, in my opinion, was his inclusion of Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner in his administration and his re-appointment of Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Charles Ferguson's excellent Inside Job outlines exactly why these moves were so troubling. Then there was the disturbing revelation of the continued mass surveillance of American citizens by the NSA, which we only know about thanks to Edward Snowden, whom the Obama administration has, of course, charged with espionage. And now there is the question of drone strikes. Jeremy Scahill's Dirty Wars is, well, you've done a heck of a job, Disillusionment. We used to chant Yes We Can. The future seemed so bright. What happened?


Sincerely,
PC