Trey Mays writes a very even handed essay about whether or not Edward Snowden is a hero or a traitor.
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Edward Snowden is a Narcissist Traitor
By Trey Mays
January 3, 2014
The Snowden scandal has sparked an enormous debate in America about freedom and privacy. It has divided the country into two very distinct groups. On one side, the purist libertarians have sided with the Left calling Snowden a hero and a freedom fighter. On the other side, the defense hawks, who are completely fine with the government taking away a few liberties in the name of defending freedom and the country, call Snowden a traitor. We are missing one important detail about the Snowden scandal: Edward Snowden is not about the 4th Amendment, privacy, and freedom.
There are legitimate concerns about a central government creating a spy program that collects and stores phone records on millions of Americans. Constitutional Libertarians are not against spying on terrorists in defense of our freedom and country. We are against circumventing the 4th Amendment to spy on American citizens because they are suspected of terrorism. American citizens, regardless of the suspicion, still have 4th Amendment rights to protect them from an interfering central government. Constitutional Libertarians welcome this debate with both the purist libertarians and the defense hawks.
However, calling Edward Snowden a hero and a freedom fighter is naïve and dumb. It misses the fact that regardless of whether you agree with the spying program or not, Edward Snowden still disclosed national security secrets of his own country and gave them to enemies of his own country. If Snowden was so right in what he did, then why did he flee to seek protection from communist nations or terrorist sympathizers?
Edward Snowden did not release America’s national security secrets because of some heroic concern he has for freedom in America, he released them because he is a narcissist who cares only about himself. He wanted to make a name for himself. He is probably a closet anti-capitalist, which would explain why he sought protection from communists, who does not believe in America’s economic and military superiority. Regardless of what Snowden wants us to believe, his decision to disclose America’s national security secrets was not out of some idealistic desire for privacy and freedom for the American people.
It is a legitimate debate to have over whether the NSA spying program as it is currently structured is constitutional or unconstitutional. However, do not place Edward Snowden on a pedestal as the face for privacy and freedom. If anything, he is the face of narcissism. Although the defense hawks are correct to label Snowden a traitor, they should not assume that because he is a traitor the NSA spying program is constitutional. If the spying program violates the 4th Amendment and ignores American citizens’ individual rights, then it is unconstitutional. Freedom is not free, but that does not give our government the right or authority to take away our liberties to defend our country.
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Trey Mays is the CEO and Publisher of The Truth Dispatch, and a Christian and Constitutional Libertarian political commentator.
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