Domestic surveillance okay against the strange
A New York Times/CBS News poll indicates that Americans are begrudgingly okay with domestic surveillance as long as it's directed against terrorists. When asked if they approved of President Bush's approval of eavesdropping without court order "in order to reduce the threat of terrorism", 53% said yes. That number sank to 46% when the word terrorist was stripped out of the question.
This is why the White House is carefully word spinning the controversy, renaming it "terrorist surveillance" instead of "domestic espionage."
It's disturbing that people are still tugged by the xenophobia that's behind much of the fearmongering since 9/11. If the terrorists were white supremacists, like Timothy MacVeigh, would the public feel that way? This poll sheds light on the average American's fear of the strange. It's also worrisome because some day, we will have a real threat again, and by then the Bush administration will have overworked the Chicken Little effect to the breaking point.
Posted on January 27, 2006
