Barack Obama decided a month or so ago to begin taking the traditional Democratic path to the White House. It involved looking as much like a Republican as possible. They do this in order to win over the independents, who are apparently all Republicans. It’s been a fantastic way to lose, as has been demonstrated by Dukakis, Gore and Kerry. Obama’s current blunder involves his FISA vote and it is going to cost him where it hurts most: His bank account.

I will not be voting for Obama. Obviously, I’ve taken a lot of crap over the past week or so for taking this stance, but I’m just tired of this shit. There is a line, and in my opinion, Obama crossed it. I’m a liberal and I’ve sat and watched this country torn apart by complete and total douchebags for the past eight years. They have rolled back law after law, taken away right after right, and we’ve been forced to sit back and hope it all ends at some point. It is now apparent Obama is not the answer.

And don’t give me the, “You’re bailing because of ONE issue” bullshit. The Constitution is not an issue; it’s the foundation of our country. Obama is, and always has been, a centrist. I have no problems with that. As a matter of fact, I was already compromising by supporting Obama. Most of my support rose from my dislike of Hillary, but I also was encouraged by his stance against lobbyists. I expected Obama to take centrist positions on many issues, but I didn’t expect him, being a Constitutional lawyer, to vote to undermine the 4th amendment. Quite a few of us are pissed and rightfully so. This is a straw that broke the camel’s back moment for me.

As the presumptive nominee, Barack could have easily rallied his fellow Democrats to stop the FISA bill. The Democrats could not afford to stand against their nominee on such a important bill. By doing so, he would have been seen as a leader, a fighter, a savior of civil liberties and raised his political capital. He could have created an enormous gulf between himself and McCain/Bush on the issue of people’s rights – something Americans have a tendency to look upon favorably. But he didn’t. He decided this was the time to prove his right-wing credentials.

We’ve been living under the most lawless president of all time; a man who lives without rules and is not held accountable by Congress for his many illegal deeds. When we handed Congress back to the Democrats in 2006, it was with the expectation that Bush would be, at the very least, reeled in. That has not occurred, as a matter of fact, and the opposite has been the result.

So, when Obama decided to vote for the FISA bill, using the old Democratic blue print for failure, I was done. I have given him money over the past few months, but no more. After watching Bush do it for years, I have zero interest in a Democratic president who is even slightly okay with the same behavior.

And I really am not interested in Lawrence Lessig explaining to me that I am being "hysterical" or Theda Skocpol telling me that I am a "whiner." Trust me, I get it. I understand that Obama will move to the center on some issues, like his “faith based initiatives” and executing child rapists. But FISA is too far. And I get the implications of my actions. McCain may win. If he does, that will be on Obama’s head for taking the traditional route of failure in the general election. It is astounding to see the same pattern of “I will show I am strong on security by taking the most insane political position, only to be called a pussy on security anyway” taken by Obama. It’s just a loser position that Democrats seem all to excited to take.

This year, Democrats have won special elections in several Republican strong hold congressional districts. In every race FISA came up and was pushed hard by Republicans. And in every race, the Democrat stood his ground and won. These were districts Bush won by huge margins. They practically lit a runway, using bonfires, showing Obama the route to take. But he went the traditional Democratic spineless route.

Obama’s big on “telling it like it is.” He’s not going to hold back – and apparently he will do the same with votes in the Senate. So, just as he can take hard stands, Obama supporters have to accept that he lost a few votes over the past couple of weeks. And a lot of money. Comes with the territory of doing what he thinks is right, I guess.

To me, shitting on the Constitution is no different than bombing Iran or making abortion illegal. It’s that big of a deal. And I’m not alone. Most people aren’t holding back their votes, like I am. Most are just holding back their money. That’s how we send a message to today’s politician that he fucked up. And it’s not a few people, from what I am reading. When I received a call asking if I would donate more, I told them why I was no longer contributing to the campaign. The staffer then read the prepared and obviously written FISA excuse speech. It was pretty obvious I was not the first guy to explain why I won’t be donating.

The hacky retort to my position is, “You may as well vote for McCain.” No. Not voting for someone is not the same as voting for his opponent. I do, however, very much believe that things need to get worse before they get better. We need to bottom out, as it were, and Republicans are the whiskey. Obviously things will not work as they are, with one party destroying the rule of law, ripping apart the economy and stripping away our rights, while the mythical opposition party does the same, while they claim to be against the whole process. I’ve never been happier to not be a member of the Democratic Party. They truly stand for nothing and the only way to right this ship is to have it collapse on itself.

I’m sort of glad Obama pulled this FISA move now. I believe this was a massive blunder by the Obama campaign. He needs his base to be “fired up” and to work for him, hitting the streets, making phone calls and donating regularly. He lost a few of those people. Quite a few. Sure, most of them will vote for him but the enthusiasm is gone. His campaign was all about enthusiasm. Now the enthusiastic ones are spending their time trying to convince people like me to vote for him, while many others are no longer enthusiastic. They should look to his new peeps, who are farther over to the right. Way farther.

Obama will probably win. The only thing that can stop him is a terrorist attack. He's up in the polls and pollsters aren't even calling people who only have cell phones, so he's probably way up. But I'm done. For now, I will give to Strange Bedfellows, the ACLU, and nobody else.

FearTheReaper still dislikes Hillary more, so shut your face. And you can read more FTR on his blog, Stop All Monsters.