By: Jessie Markell
Last week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said, “I think as we have a fuller debate on these discussions you’re going to find that not only Republicans are with me on this issue, the youth are.” As a former Young Americans for Liberty Chairman for the State of Florida, I know that Rand Paul is 100% correct.
The youth in this country have an appreciation for privacy, especially Internet privacy, which the “national security over privacy” advocates don’t seem to understand. Young people are skeptics as to just how much safer going through our Internet searches of cats in funny hats and our Instagram pictures of food are making us. In a generation where everything is shared, young people certainly do not want the NSA reading their posts critical of ObamaCare and arming the Syrian “rebels.”
In a recent CNN/ORC International Poll, 61% of respondents said they disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling government surveillance of U.S. citizens (only 52% disapproved of President Bush in 2006, for comparison). If the poll had broken down into age groups, it’s likely the youth would have responded most negatively.
Emma Benson, YAL Chairwoman at NC State University, said about the NSA scandal, “Students in North Carolina find it appalling to know that more than just their parents are spying on them now.”
There was even a 17 percentage point drop in general support of Obama from 18 to 20 year olds, which Rand Paul said is because “They see him now as a hypocrite who’s unwilling to defend the privacy of the Internet.” He added, “I think issues like this resonate beyond the Republican label, and I think they’re going to help us become a bigger national party, and Republicans will find out that I will and I do say that we do everything we can to protect our country, consistent with our Constitution. That’s what we’re defending.”
Join Campaign for Liberty in showing your support for the 4th Amendment here. Also, sign a letter to your Senator telling them to Stand with Rand against Obama’s out-of-control NSA.
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