Obama is correct that Americans should be on guard against any “absolutism” from the Trump administration. But don’t forget that Obama administration lawyers asserted a right to kill U.S. citizens who it labeled terrorist suspects without trial, without notice, and without any chance for the marked individuals to legally object. Drone strikes increased tenfold under Obama, and he personally chose who would be killed at weekly “Terror Tuesday” White House meetings which featured PowerPoint parades of potential targets.
Americans should be alarmed at Trump’s power grabs. But Obama helped establish an Impunity Democracy in which rulers pay no price for their misdeeds. As the New York Times noted after the 2016 election, the Obama administration fought in court to preserve the legality of defunct Bush administration practices such as torture and detaining Americans arrested at home as “enemy combatants.” “Obama’s failure to rein in George Bush’s national security policies hands Donald Trump a fully loaded weapon,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero lamented.
Who cares if an ex-president belatedly cheers for transparency and accountability? Obama has never admitted how his policies made the federal government more dangerous at home and abroad. Nothing that Trump can do or say should be permitted to expunge Obama’s derelictions.
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