2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: What specific POLICY POSITIONS show Sec. Clinton to be "Not Liberal" or "Not a Democrat?" [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I have to use a password to get into my computer. I believe that I have an expectation of privacy as to anything on or sent from my computer. The NSA or any other government agency should have to get a warrant to get at the information on my computer or e-mails. I think that obtaining the content of conversations on my phone should also be subject to a warrant, a subpoena. I think that Edward Snowden did a great service to the world and Americans when he told us of the activities of the NSA.
This is an important issue to me. A lawyer's confidential relationship with a client is breached when an agency of our government can simply listen in on or otherwise hear the content or even see at any time with utterly no probable cause for doing so the calls or even fact of the calls between a lawyer and a client.
I strongly disagree with Hillary on this issue.
We forget that laws can be long. The fact that individuals violated laws in some cases have played positive roles in our society. The early revolutionaries were violating tax laws and import controls set by the British which was like it or not the government at that time. That's why they included the 4th Amendment first in the Mass. Constitution and then in our US Constitution. And as we are discussing Harriet Tubman at this time, it is appropriate while on the hand to look up to her as an example of someone who fearlessly did what was right also recognize that she was breaking the law while doing it. Peaceful resistance has always been a part of our progressive movement.
The NSA spying makes progressive movements potential objects of surveillance by virtue of the fact that we think ahead and stand at the forefront of movements that may be using peaceful resistance methods.
I do not like Hillary's view on the NSA surveillance and Edward Snowden. I don't have an opinion as to how Snowden should be treated should he return to the US, but I appreciate his honesty and his warning to us about what our government was doing.