thats up to interpretation,
sometimes some things are done for the betterment of our country, and if it means the security and peace of mind that my family can put faith in and trust the government to keep us safe, then i dont care. The only people who cared about snowden are the liberals, anybody else with common sense already knew it was happening and didnt care. Thats my two cents on the matter, just like good ol' Cheney said, "id do it again in a minute." It was a media storm anyways, a complete over exaggeration like all media, as if big brother cared about what some fucking soccer mom in Kansas was saying in a telephone statement to her pencil pusher husband anyways.
If it was so patriotic of him to do it, why is the treasonous cunt hiding in the midst of Russia giving them information, very patriotic man he is.
http://time.com/3632875/dick-cheney-cia-interrogations-senate-report/Im aware this is unrelated to snowden, but it correlates to national security and snowden entirely.
It wasn't just liberals at all, many non-partisans and many former state security/intelligence agency guys with no-nonsense, old school conservative track records, libertarians etc. When the principle of seperation of powers and civil rights are concerned the red vs blue football match politics are in general suspended. Sad to see though, many Republicans and Conservatives giving up constitution-given fundamental civil rights on the premise of some terror witch hunt experts (including top CIA analysts) and history have well-demonstrated isn't really effective at all but is in fact the main reason why terror is even effective; it enables politicians to enact all kinds of extrajudicial laws that in reality mainly suppresses the people it's ostensibly protecting.
Hebeas corpus is an ancient custom to protect citizens against government abuse (which happens all the time btw. just look at the ridiculous official record). Even the authoritarian Romans had it (some great examples in the New Testament at the trials of Paulus/Saulus where even a poor Christian Jew troublemaker on the fringes of the Empire could have this right respected by Roman soldiers of the local garrison with almost state-religious zeal).
It is a bearing, fundamental right in Western democracies, the absence of which we have often scorned as a basic principle for dictatorships and fascim - an often lauded ruling principle in free societies Western peoples have traditionally fought for at least since the Middle Ages (Magna Carta and the English Common Law which most our judicial systems are based on). It's an integral part of civil rights, Western values that has made our societies some of the most progressive, advanced and free in the history of the world.
It's not only used for terror prevention, in fact there's been next to no results from the increased surveillance, I'd recommend you go look it up, only confirmed case last I looked was some guy who had mailed a few thousand dollars back to some organization in Africa on someone's terrorlist. Remaining cases are from good old fashioned police work. Mostly it's used by other agencies, like the FBI or the DEA, so personal information trickles down the system outside the law and the proper course through the courts and agencies can prosecute and imprison even kill people without fair trial or trial at all. It's used a whole lot in the 'war on drugs', but is also a whole lot about controlling domestic dissent ie. the many political cases against whistleblowers, people filming animal abuse in meat factories, Occupy Wallstreet, 'eco terrorists', activists in general, internet piracy, political blackmailling and of course economic spying for sectors of industry. Intentions notwithstanding, in practical use it has very little to do with our security, I'm afraid.
And no, I'm not doing anything wrong either that I'm afraid the government might see, but I would sure as hell not like my personal emails or pictures or whatever by looked at by some random stranger, private photos of my girlfriend or private letters to an old friend or whatnot. I think the classic analogy with having government surveillance in your bathroom is pretty fitting; no, you don't have anything to hide while in your bathroom but you'd still prefer your privacy, right?
Another point is the lack of transparency and supervision (seperation of powers, remember Montesquieu?) within the official organs (aka FISA courts), and when government officials again and again are lying to the public on these matters as proven by the leak. And no, our personal data isn't just for high ranking, high sec officials to use when low-ranking guys like Snowden had full access.
If you by some chance and against a terrible track record blindly believe your government officials to not abuse the system imagine such a powerful surveillance state apparatus fall into the hands of a (Western-style) tyrant.
