Edward Snowden made a calm, compelling case for clemency last night. He's a patriot.

[olegramps]

224. That response only reveals you lack of faith in the nation.

Our system is not without its flaws, however, it strives to provide justice for all. Your unfounded attempt to cast the system in the light as being a virtual dictatorship that would automatically throw him in to prison is far more typical of the justice meted out in Russia. You totally discount that there were outer options that could have been employed to expose and correct illegal surveillance by NSA. How much different is this attitude than Reagan's Orwellian "government bad?"

Perhaps Regan did a far more better job of undermining our faith in our system of governmental that even he could have imagined. This type of pessimism about the government appears to be not only the main stay of the Tea Party radicals and the conservative cadre of FOX, Limbaugh etc., but to have infected the general population.

I can not help from concluding that this attitude of the total worthlessness of government has the ability to totally over shadow the value of numerous governmental programs and achievements that can not be achieved otherwise. It is being used as an effective weapon to dismantle every safety-net program and privatize every agency. Perhaps the people will only wakeup to the reality when they find themselves destitute and nowhere to turn to.