The evolution
by digby
From reflexive anger and petulance to reluctant agreement and acceptance:
When the first of Mr. Snowden’s revelations came out last year, Mr. Obama seemed surprised at the public reaction.
“If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress and don’t trust federal judges to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution, due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here,” he said last June.
By Friday, he had come to agree that Americans had every reason to be skeptical. “Given the unique power of the state,” Mr. Obama said, “it is not enough for leaders to say ‘trust us, we won’t abuse the data we collect,’ for history has too many examples when that trust has been breached. Our system of government is built on the premise that our liberty cannot depend on the good intentions of those in power; it depends on the law to constrain those in power.”
What changed between then and now? Is it possible that as Peter Baker suggested in his earlier reporting that the president really didn't know? And if he really didn't know, what does that say about these programs? (I'd say it's very disturbing.)
On the other hand, that evolution seems to be one that a whole lot of people have undergone during that period whether they could have been expected to know about it or not. The reflexive hostility to the revelations has given way to a more thoughtful assessment of the implications on the part of a lot of people. Even the Village press, which was among the most vociferous critics of the revelations, have come around to the notion that this was something the people had a right to know.
It's a good lesson for me. I need to remember that people receive information like this in different ways. I recall that after 9/11 I was surprised and confused by friends of mine who seemed to be in a state of panic and reacted with calls for vengeance. They thought I was shockingly complacent. Over time we have come back to the same place, seeing the event and subsequent threat in similar ways but I see now that much of how we reacted at the time had to do with temperament and judgement about how to respond --- and also our relative trust in institutions and leadership generally.
I don't know that the president has evolved all that much, in truth. There's no way of knowing. And he is constrained by various bureaucratic pressures and responsibilities that make it difficult for him to take a singular view of this situation. But it's important that he articulated that viewpoint yesterday, however briefly, even if his policies and proposals don't fully respond to the issue. There are a lot of people out there who needed to hear it.
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