TPM Reader SL sends a very candid note, dissenting from a lot of reaction to the NSA revelations. But also conceding that her reaction to these things significantly depends on her level of trust in the current head of the government, which is obviously a problem, especially in our highly polarized political society.
From TPM Reader SL …
I have to say that I generally agree with David Simon’s article about data collection. I’ve been thinking something along these lines all along as I’ve watched this story unfold, and wondering if I’ve just lost my sense of what freedom and privacy mean or whether the meaning of these events has been vastly over-hyped. I’m kind of relieved to hear that you’re asking similar questions.
It really doesn’t seem reasonable to me to expect government to be able to protect us from terrorist acts to the degree that we are asking for this, and then expect them not to utilize this kind of data. How the heck are they supposed to accomplish what we’ve asked?
I’m suspicious of myself, because I definitely notice that I feel very differently depending on who is exercising these powers. I didn’t trust Bush at all, so I was much more frightened when he used powers like these. I fundamentally trust Obama, so I’m much more sanguine about his use of such powers, much more confident that he is unlikely to abuse his power for political purposes. So I guess I can’t blame Republicans for having a similar bias in the other direction.
But it seems to me that Obama is continually damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t just about anything…
Anyway…my two cents, since you asked…
Is It About Who"s In Power?
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