Democrats need to embrace civil liberties again

On May 31st three provisions of the Patriot Act expired due, in part, to the efforts of libertarian minded Senators like Rand Paul and Ron Wyden of Oregon. Some have argued that allowing those surveillance provisions to “sunset” would spell doom and that the terrorist would win, this fear is misplaced. That said, there are lessons we can draw from Rand Paul, his cause, and the issues around all this eavesdropping and surveillance.

Democrats are missing an opportunity to court the affections of generation Y and generation Z, two generations that are both more progressive and libertarian minded than preceding generations. While young voters may be more open about their private lives on social media platforms, what they value most is the ability to control what information remains public and what information remains private. The threat of a mass surveillance state jeopardizes their ability to control how much information is out there and is driving their support of Rand Paul and other like minded Republicans. The truth of the matter is that surveillance is probably the only issue young voters see eye-to-eye with Rand Paul on, and attacking Rand Paul for being “soft on terror” is a waste of our efforts and comes across as disingenuous. Mass surveillance is a key issue for young people, especially young white males, and if we want to win them back or cement them as a key Democratic voting bloc then we need to take up the pro privacy, anti-surveillance mantle.

This stance should be a natural fit for a party that has historically supported civil rights and civil liberties, but we’re afraid to appear “soft on terror” or weak on “national defense.” Democrats need to stop pretending that they agree with the Reagan consensus and need to start standing up for American’s rights to be left the heck alone. One reason Republicans vilify Rand Paul is because they think he does not belong in the party. That’s because the civil liberties fight is ours, and we need to reclaim it. In an era of 50/50 elections every vote counts and we cannot afford to cede voters on an issue that has historically been a key tenant of our party platform. We need to keep our coalition intact, we also seldom sound genuine when we use these Republican talking points. We sound like we’re afraid of coming across as “soft on crime” or “soft on defense” or “soft on terror.”

Furthermore, we have failed to really demonstrate that all this mass surveillance actually works or keeps us safe. Bulk collection of metadata and warrantless wiretapping failed to catch the Boston Bombers, we need better security and real human intelligence gathering, and we don’t need to trample on the constitution in the process. Suffice it to say, the money wasted on this mass surveillance state can be better appropriated. We need to go back to our roots, lest we lose voters to Rand Paul minded Republicans, and we need to divert current NSA & TSA spending to programs that can effectively screen and stop security threats without jeopardizing civil liberties or our integrity.