President Obama has pretty much continued the Bush policies in regard to prosecuting whistleblowers and defending unwarranted surveillance. His recent pronouncements on the NSA and Snowden have been specious. I expect more form him that this. I agree with
Kevin Drum of
Mother Jones that Friday's speech treated us like five-year-olds.
After listening to all the tortured logic about privacy versus secrecy, I think the arguments are misplaced. It's really about democracy. Cutting through all the phony rhetoric, for me it boils down to two points:
- Our government rules with the consent of the governed.
- How can I give my consent if I don't know what you are doing (or--even more troubling--if you lie to me about what you are doing).
My understanding is that at least part of Snowden's motivation is that he thought Americans had a right to know what their government is doing. We are now having a discussion about that. We would not be having this discussion if Snowden hadn't done what he did. For Obama to claim that we would have gotten here anyway is--as Drum says-- laughable. We are having the discussion because Obama was forced into it.
This is not the high point of the Obama presidency, that's for sure.
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