Edward Snowden is the man who came forward to admit he exposed the NSA’s illegal wiretapping of American’s phone records. He has since fled to Hong Kong and the Obama Administration is saying he is a spy for the Chinese. Liberal media is portraying him as a traitor exposing state secrets while rightwing media says he’s a heroic whistleblower.
Is he a traitor or a patriot? Is he a Bradley Manning betraying Americans by leaking classified data to the benefit of America’s enemies, or a Mark “Deep Throat” Felt exposing a corrupt president and his administration? There is a difference between legality and righteousness, and in the opinions of the Left and Right.
President Obama is saying the NSA spying program was initiated by President Bush and is perfectly legal in its actions to insure America’s security. When the program was put into effect to find Moslem terrorists in the United States, then Senator Obama condemned the “invasion of privacy” monitoring calls made to hostile nations and Islamists overseas. Now that he has declared the war on terror over, Obama says the program is legitimate in tapping the phone records of all Americans and to whom they are talking within the United States. The question is, for what purpose?
Following the exposure of the Obama Administration using the IRS to oppress Tea Party groups, conservatives are condemning Obama for putting people in place to violate the rights of citizens. Leftists contend that there is no written evidence proving that Obama had anything to do with what the president condemns as the actions of a few rogue personnel. Herbert Meyer of the American Thinker points out that there is no written evidence that Hitler hated Jews and had them exterminated, but only had to put like-minded people into positions to enact his will.
While liberals condemned the program along with President Obama when it was initiated, they now approve of Obama’s use of the IRS against conservatives, just as they approve of the removal of Christianity from the military. Rush Limbaugh points out that surveillance under Bush was targeted while Obama is conducting broad sweeps of all Americans. Some conservatives are saying it’s okay because they need a judge to sign a warrant to go further, but Obama’s AG, Eric Holder, had no trouble judge shopping to make violate the rights of FOX’s Rosen. Richard Nixon infamously said,
“When the president does it, it’s not illegal.”
The difference between legality and righteousness is the difference between a dictator who makes his own law to benefit his people at the expense of others and the righteous leader who makes laws justly applied to all. A dictator’s actions are always “legal” but not necessarily right. Obama’s leftist applications of the law have prompted many to say that he is attempting to overthrow the U.S. Constitution and establish his own regime.
Liberals Backwards Think 