By Rebecca DiFede — Imagine for a second, a world in which people could tell on their fellow neighbors, friends and enemies for speaking out against government actions or policies, and deliver that information to the leaders themselves.
Think about the unspeakable horror that could occur when people with a grudge make false accusations against their counterparts, and those accusations are followed by direct action from the government against the nay-sayers. Sound familiar?
History is replete with examples of governments turning citizen against citizen in cynical attempts to retain power. This tactic has been used by governments as a mean of controlling their citizenry. During World War II the German people were encouraged to hand over their Jewish neighbors, and report those who they believed might sympathize with them.
Unfortunately, in this age of rapid communication, our leaders have to be much more careful not to set up systems that can effectively have a chilling effect on our American freedoms.
In order to keep up with the Jones’, or rather, what the Jones’ are saying about him, Obama’s presidential re-election campaign has created AttackWatch.com; a website where citizens can tattle on their fellow Americans for saying mean spirited things about our illustrious president.
In the wake of his failing administration, sinking ratings and titanic debt, he has attempted to build himself a fortress where he can construct answers to all of his detractors insults, essentially the adult version of ‘sticks and stones will break my bones.’
However, luckily for Americans, our Constitution protects us from actually being prosecuted in any way for our beliefs or thoughts about Obama’s policies. In fact, the most that AttackWatch can do, is compile an ever-growing list of people who are dissatisfied with the way Obama is running the country. Legally, it can serve no other purpose.
As such, the website, dedicated to “fighting the smear”, has become one of the biggest media punch lines in recent history. It has its own twitter handle, @AttackWatch, and accompanying hashtag, both of which have been used and abused by conservative tweeters who laughingly tease Obama and then tag #attackwatch, knowing full-well that nothing will come of it.
The idea that the Obama administration is going to actively keep tabs on who’s saying what and use that as ammo to fight back on the campaign trail is ludicrous. All of the speech is protected by the First Amendment, and the fact that they are trying to make people believe that Obama is going to hold them accountable for what they say is abhorrent at best.
At the end of the day, the site is just another scare tactic used by Obama and his cronies to attempt to intimidate the American people, as well as to give the illusion that the president has any degree of control over the population.
Thankfully, in the real world, the site amounts to rumors passed around on the playground of an elementary school. The recess monitor ignored them, as will the rest of the country.
What we learn from the fact that AttackWatch even exists is evidenced by the paranoia that comes with the realization that the ship you fought so hard to gain captainship of is rapidly sinking beneath you, and there is nothing you can do but stand back and watch.
By sanctioning this site, our illustrious President is only creating what appears to be his very own enemies list, something that his friends should dissuade him from immediately.
Rebecca DiFede is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government.
