Chris Christie: Your NSA Fears Are Bullshit And Civil Liberties Advocates Are Extremists

Say That Again

from the unelectable dept

The nice thing about hating both of America’s stupid political parties is you get to make fun of everyone. That said, occasionally one political candidate or another says something so stupidly wrong to support a stupidly wrong political position that your brain screeches to a halt aghast. Today’s cerebellum stopper is Chris Christie, who most commentators seem to think is going to be running in the next presidential election. If he continues this line of, “Civil liberties are for extremists and NSA spying concerns are baloney because 9/11″ rhetoric, however, it’s probably going to be a short foray into the primaries.

Civil liberties advocates’ fears about the government’s intelligence efforts are “baloney,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will say Monday during a speech in the early primary state of New Hampshire, calling for expanded American military and intelligence programs.

The government is not the enemy when it comes to fighting terrorist threats, he will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks provided by his political action committee.

Christie went on to say in that speech that the American people should not listen to Edward Snowden, because Snowden is a criminal, and also Vladimir Putin, and especially because 9/11, obviously. It’s an interesting political move, I think, considering that a majority of Americans believe the government has overreached on domestic spying, but I’m not here to tell Christie how to run his campaign. I am here to tell him that he isn’t allowed to make plainly false claims about this country’s ideals and the people that developed them, however.

“There are going to be some who are going to come before you and are going to say, ‘Oh, no, no, no. This is not what the Founders intended.’ The Founders made sure that the first obligation of the American government was to protect the lives of the American people, and we can do this in a way that’s smart and cost-effective and protects civil liberties. But you know, you can’t enjoy your civil liberties if you’re in a coffin.”

This, in case you’re confused, is absolute nonsense. That’s not to say that protecting American lives wasn’t high on the founding fathers’ list of things to do. It certainly was. It appears just below protecting their freedom, however. Christie suggesting that it was the founding fathers’ intention to negotiate some compromise between freedom and safety is fiction. Man, if only there was some catchy phrase from a historical figure that could some this all up for me in an easily reproducable, easy-to-tweet to Christie fashion.

Damned extremists, always trying to, you know, start the country that Christie is now going to run for chief executive of. There are other examples, of course, although the chief example of the founding fathers’ willingness to put freedom before safety is probably, oh I don’t know, the Revolutionary War. I wasn’t there, but I’m pretty sure that war wasn’t all that safe.

Look, the point of all this is that 9/11, while certainly not forgotten, is in the rearview mirror and can’t be invoked as the boogeyman to push bad, freedom-thieving policy on Americans any longer. We’ve had over a decade of that and it just isn’t going to work any more. But, hey, if Chris Christie wants to make himself un-electable, I’m all for it. Give me a better candidate or give me death.

Filed Under: chris christie, civil liberties, nsa, surveillance