of course not. the folks in the administration think they represent america's best interests.
but the point of folks like snowden is to demand that the us government cleaves to its values. that it doesn't set its temporary objectives against its long-run purposes.
such people aren't anti-us. they are traditionalists and idealists. the sort of people that created america in the first place. patriots. undoubtedly.
what is the answer to the old problem of who guards the guards? these people do. only such people protect us from the corruption of power. only people who believe in the abstract authority of moral obligation can secure us against the descent into cynicism.
what prevents a country from abusing its power? a pure note. a single voice. a belief in the things that brought us liberty and that make it worth something.
the fact that these guardians of liberty emerge and find a following tells us that there are cracks in the architecture. we fix the building first by figuring what is causing the cracks and then by adding the buttresses that make it stronger.
no one serious is saying we should not seek security. no one serious is saying we shouldn't surveil major league terror networks. they are saying there is a purpose and a value to privacy. that the methods by which an individual's privacy is removed are sensibly defined in the public domain. and that the balance between privacy and surveillance should not be eroded in secret nor should the law be interpreted in its own favour by a government agency.
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