NSA and Obama, now what?

[DonCoquixote]

There are many who have reached the point where, if they have not outright rejected the democrats, they have lost hope, and at best think they need a hard left turn.

My question is, where now?

Now, I will be honest about where I come from:

A) I do not think voting 3rd party in 2016 will help, namely because I saw the 3rd party idea get co opted very successfully in Florida by the GOP.

B) and yes, I still think the best GOP will do more damage than the worst Dem.

However, i also realize that neither Obama nor Hillary will turn into FDR anytime soon.

Where to?

[quinnox]

1. now lets see what happens

If there are more revelations to come, and enough common citizens hear about this stuff, maybe the brakes can be put on this. Things can change if there is a big enough groundswell from the people.

I saw a poll recently and was surprised by how the big majority of people said they don't want the government spying on them.

As for the future presidency who knows, maybe a new face we don't know about yet will run. It doesn't have to be Hillary.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

2. It's beyond politics for me

Yes, there will be political consequences, but Obama already set that in motion when he continued Bush's surveillance program against the American public. The GOP is dirty in this too, of course, but they'll use it for political advantage however they can. For me personally, issues of politics are shoved to the side until this goddamned Soviet travesty is stopped. Power will shift this way or that in the meantime, but if the President wanted me to be concerned with his political fortunes, he shouldn't have spied on me.

[BlueCheese]

3. I don't know, honestly.

As a nation we've made terrible decisions on civil liberties before-- interning all those Japanese Americans, for example. However, we eventually realized that we were wrong, corrected our behavior, and learned from it.

Will we learn our lesson this time? It's harder because it was clear when World War II was over, whereas this vague war on terror has no obvious end. After 12 years with no major terrorist attacks, I'm disappointed we're still waving the flag of fear. When will we have a president who dares say that the war is over and we can repeal the AUMF and let the Patriot Act sunset?

It's been very disappointing to see the transformation of Candidate Obama into President Obama. I have no idea why he went from saying all the right things to being a hard-core proponent of the surveillance state. It will be hard to believe future candidates who say the same thing, absent some track record.