Barack's position on the recent bill has been a real blow to me, and I am struggling with it, so I will appreciate it if you guys will share your thinking on this.
I do believe Barack believes in our civil liberties. But we also have to look at the choices people make. This particular choice appears to fly in the face of who I thought Barack was at the core, which is why I am not able to dismiss this as just an area where we agree to disagree.
On one hand we have who we thought Barack was and what he stood for. On the other hand we have an action on a very serious matter that is in complete opposition to what we thought Barack stood for. It's well documented that people cannot live in a state of cognitive dissonance - which is when there is a discrepancy between what a person believes (or knows or values) and persuasive information that calls the beliefs or values into question. When that occurs, you basically have to either give up what you believed or you find a way to dismiss the persuasive information in some way. For me, this started on Thursday when Barack "went silent" on the recent bill at a time when he would normally have taken a stand. It got worse on Friday when he continued his silence for most of the day and then came out with his (I thought) lame statement on the bill that seems to fly in the face of who he is and what he stands for. It didn't get any better when Barack failed to post his statement on the Obama blogs - when normally every statement Barack makes ends up on a blog. I's been 4 days of cognitive dissonance for many of us, and it hasn't been fun. I have been unable to either completely give up my former view of Barack OR dismiss his position on the recent bill as not that important or not indicative of who Barack is. The best I have been able to figure out is that I will still vote for him, but I cannot give heart and soul and money because I no longer trust Barack the way I have since I first met him in the summer of 2004. I do not want to give up on Barack but am unable to let this go. UPDATE: I am going to remove any posts from this blog that come from "unknown user" or people we do not know. This is intended as a forum for conversation between people who I have come to know and respect over the past year. Any newcomers will likely have worthy opinions, and I hope they share them on the wider Barack Obama website.
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