Richard Stallman's personal site.

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For current political commentary, see the daily political notes.

RMS's Bio | The GNU Project

September 2012

Why I can't support Obama

• Human rights. He protects torturers, and pursues whistleblowers like no president before. And he actively defends his power to imprison or kill anyone without a trial.
• Global heating. Obama is the oil companies' man, and his policy is "Drill, baby, drill." This despite increased evidence that global heating is going even faster.
  Since he is already "expediting" part of the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline, he will surely approve the rest — after the election, when disappointing his supporters again will not matter.
• Trade policy. He pushed Dubya's free exploitation treaties through Congress, and is now working on another even worse, the TPP.
• Copyright. He's the MPAA's man and the RIAA's man, eager to escalate the War on Sharing.
• Surveillance. He's all in favor of the total surveillance state. Without tracking and listening to everyone, how could he decide who to assassinate?
• Social Security. Obama offers to join with Republicans to gut it.
• Economy. He protects the banksters, not the homeowners they defrauded and then dishonestly foreclosed. He even boasts of how he has reached out to Republicans — to cut the budget during a recession!

As the Republicans get more right-wing, the Democrats follow them, staying just one step behind. That will continue as long as right-wing Democrats can get elected by saying that the Republicans are worse.