7 ms·

As a politician, she just reflects popular public opinion. "Right" or "wrong" is what the majority feels, unfortunately. If the public is strongly concerned abo

As a politician, she just reflects popular public opinion. "Right" or "wrong" is what the majority feels, unfortunately. If the public is strongly concerned about privacy, they shouldn't vote for her or likes. The headline should actually read "A majority of Americans are wrong about Edward Snowden"

cmrdporcupine 11y ago
We should expect leaders to lead. Here in Canada last year the majority of the public was (according to polls, 80ish %) on side with the government's very repressive Bill C-51. The only major political party to come out against it was the NDP and all the pundits predicted disaster for them. But they made the case and campaigned it and although the bill passed parliament, the NDP in fact had a major rise in the polls and public opinion swung the other direction and the bill became very unpopular. IHMO the reason we have political parties is to represent polarities of interests and opinions and principles and in a functional democracy the leaders within them should be making the arguments and trying to lead the public so we can hash the debate out in the public sphere. When everybody follows the polls we sink into a quagmire of mediocrity.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
  And the NDP has since fallen from those heights in the polling. We (privacy concerned techies) might care about single issues, but the public doesn't (at least not our kind of issues).
  - cmrdporcupine 11y ago
    Yes, that issue has vanished from the public eye for now. It was always hard to make it a focus. But is an example of good effective leadership to do so.
- mtgx 11y ago
  I guess this is one of those issues where Hillary won't find herself "evolving". I fully expect her to continue and expand all of Obama's surveillance policies. Remember Obama at least seemed to be against all of Bush's spying in his campaign. Clinton is not even pretending to do any of that. That's bad.
scrollaway 11y ago
Or the headline could also read "Hillary Clinton is wrong to pander to whatever the majority of americans want". Then again, most politicians are like that, so the headline could also read "US politics suck" and still be correct.

cmrdporcupine 11y ago

We should expect leaders to lead. Here in Canada last year the majority of the public was (according to polls, 80ish %) on side with the government's very repressive Bill C-51. The only major political party to come out against it was the NDP and all the pundits predicted disaster for them. But they made the case and campaigned it and although the bill passed parliament, the NDP in fact had a major rise in the polls and public opinion swung the other direction and the bill became very unpopular. IHMO the reason we have political parties is to represent polarities of interests and opinions and principles and in a functional democracy the leaders within them should be making the arguments and trying to lead the public so we can hash the debate out in the public sphere. When everybody follows the polls we sink into a quagmire of mediocrity.

ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
And the NDP has since fallen from those heights in the polling. We (privacy concerned techies) might care about single issues, but the public doesn't (at least not our kind of issues).
- cmrdporcupine 11y ago
  Yes, that issue has vanished from the public eye for now. It was always hard to make it a focus. But is an example of good effective leadership to do so.
mtgx 11y ago
I guess this is one of those issues where Hillary won't find herself "evolving". I fully expect her to continue and expand all of Obama's surveillance policies. Remember Obama at least seemed to be against all of Bush's spying in his campaign. Clinton is not even pretending to do any of that. That's bad.

scrollaway 11y ago

Or the headline could also read "Hillary Clinton is wrong to pander to whatever the majority of americans want". Then again, most politicians are like that, so the headline could also read "US politics suck" and still be correct.