Steven Newcomb: President Obama's lame spying defense

Upon signing the Declaration of Independence, which led to the Revolutionary War, Benjamin Franklin is said to have quipped, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” His comment characterizes the context of what President Obama called “the dawn of our Republic” in his January 17 speech about massive National Security Administration (NSA) surveillance on the people of the United States and on the rest of the planet.

“At the dawn of our Republic,” said Mr. Obama, “a small, secret surveillance committee borne out of the ‘The Sons of Liberty’ was established in Boston.” He continued: “The group’s members included Paul Revere and at night they would patrol the streets, reporting back any signs that the British were preparing raids against America’s early Patriots.”

Yet the story of Paul Revere involves something called the Revolutionary War because those men whom Obama is calling “Patriots” had decided to engage in an armed revolution against the established British government of King George III. According to the British government at that time, Paul Revere and his compatriots were “terrorists.” That’s why Franklin said that if they didn’t hold it together in their bid for independence they would all hang for sedition.

So, is Mr. Obama’s analogy meant to portray the National Security Agency of the United States as comparable to Paul Revere-style “Patriots” working to overthrow the established government of the United States? If not, then what’s the basis of the comparison? Someone didn’t think this one through very well.