I Am Beyond Sick/Tired Of Being Called An "Authoritarian NSA Apologist".

[JDPriestly]

87. This is not a partisan issue.

Wyden was the first to question the NSA program.

He is a Democrat from a liberal state.

Most of us on DU do not see this as a partisan issue. Republicans will mostly defend the entire surveillance scheme. They created the Homeland Security Agency and the surveillance scheme.

A few of the so-called Democrats like Dianne Feinstein are extremists when it comes to surveillance and the knee-jerk fear state.

Most sane people understand the importance of having the capacity to monitor the communications among criminals.

Problem is this program sucks up too much information, costs too much and is moving us more quickly than many want to acknowledge in the direction of a repressive state rather than a democracy.

We have the First Amendment, and it states that our freedom of speech and of the press cannot be "abridged." To abridge something is to lessen it in any way. The freedoms of religion, speech, press, association and to petition our government are the most absolute freedoms we have.

Fundamental to our democracy and our Constitution is the concept of three co-equal but very different branches of government.

This surveillance program places our First Amendment freedoms and the co-equalness of the authority of the legislative and judicial branches of our government in jeopardy.

This surveillance program, because it enables even if unintentionally, the collection and review of metadata and even communication content anywhere (within the US of any people including members of Congress, teachers, journalists, scientists, lawyers, investigators, etc.communicating to and from foreign locations or outside the US) places the executive branch in a far superior position to the other branches of government. That is dangerous.

I do not believe that people who defend the NSA program as it now stands are authoritarian. I think there are various reasons for their taking that stance.

1) Some of them have not experienced much personal repression in their lives, haven't traveled much and may be relatively new to repression. I, in contrast, traveled a lot prior to 1989 in various parts of Europe and had friends and family in countries that experienced a lot of repression from both the left and the right, the NAZIs and the Communists. That gives me a different perspective.

2) Some are defenders of Obama. While I think that Obama could and should do a lot more to get this program under control and while I do not like his DLC connections, staff and policies, I like Obama. This program is not about Obama. We have to ask whether nice guy Obama is being used to foist upon the country a very ugly, not nice program. What will follow Obama may depend on whether we get rid of or drastically reign in this program because it could be used as part of an effort to pick our legislators and presidents for us. Remember, votes are sometimes counted and usually reported via the same internet that is under surveillance.

3) Some are here to disrupt. Not you. But some of those who support this program are just here for the joyride to watch the Democrats fight amongst themselves.

4) Some Democrats really are authoritarian. Not many of them join in the discussions on DU. But think about Dianne Feinstein and some of the others. With regard to human rights, they are on the right of the right wing of the party.

So Duers should not take this discussion personally. It isn't about anyone as a person. Thanks for discussing this with me. The more we keep this topic alive, the better for our country.