Terrorism and Principle

One big fact verified in the latest Pew Poll released Monday is that while a majority of people polled think that the NSA phone dragnet is "acceptable", the composition of that majority has varied wildly in the last 7 years, with 75% of Republicans gung-ho for NSA surveilance in 2006, but falling to 52% in 2013, after the Guardian released the NSA story.  Similarly only 37% of Democrats thought that was good in 2006 but now 64% think it's just fine.  The overall acceptance was 51% in 2006 and now it is 56%.

So much for consistency of principle.  The results appear to me to reflect extreme polarization in our politics and the hardening of party allegiance, not to mention the fear the word terrorism evokes.

We at least now have the opportunity to have a national discussion on the issue.  President Obama is not immune to flip-flop either.  In 2005 during arguments on reauthorizing the act, he stated on the Senate floor...

And if someone wants to know why their own government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document - through library books they've read and phone calls they've made - this legislation gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in a court of law. No judge will hear their plea, no jury will hear their case.
This is just plain wrong.

 Well I guess that was then and this is now, we still have no right to know if we're being investigated, nor right to appeal, and while President Obama is doing what he decried 8 years ago, one thing hasn't changed. 

It is still just plain wrong.