Majority of Americans willing to surrender their constitutional rights

It was only yesterday that I wrote about the cowards in the Republican party, and how they were willing to use recent terrorist activity as an excuse to surrender in the war with Obama and his unconstitutional executive amnesty. Sadly, it appears that cowardice is a contagious condition reaching epidemic proportions.

Following the recent terrorist attacks in France, an overwhelming majority of Americans have indicated in a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll a frightening willingness to surrender their privacy rights to the federal government in exchange for a little safety. By a margin of nearly two to one, 63% of Americans stated they would give up their personal privacy rights in order to help battle terrorism. 32% of respondents haven’t been struck by the epidemic as of yet.

This is a six percentage point increase from the 57% last year, when Edward Snowden informed us that the National Security Agency was collecting massive amounts of data on everyday Americans without a warrant or probable cause. Which begs the question: if the government is already violating our constitutional rights, how far do you think the government will go if we give them permission to do so?

Perhaps one of the most troubling indicators in the poll was that there was very little difference on the privacy issue between Democrats and Republicans, as nearly seven out of ten of the respondents from both parties expressed their willingness to abandon their rights, under the misguided assumption that fighting terror was more important that keeping the rights terrorists are out to destroy.

A sidenote: this is further confirmation that neither party is willing to “protect and defend” the Constitution of the United States. As this sickness grows, the difference between the two becomes smaller and smaller.

Attitudes such as this become the grease that creates the slippery slope. If we give up privacy to fight terrorism, why not freedom of speech? It was, after all, political satire that incited the Islamic terrorists in France. And speaking of Islam, why not surrender the freedom of religion? If we can restrict Christians from offending adherents to radical Islam, maybe they won’t cut our heads off, or rape our daughters, or blow up our cities. After all, if the goal is to protect us from terrorism, shouldn’t we be willing to do whatever it takes?

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither.” Wise words, but I would add this thought… those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety receive neither.