President Barack Obama delivers a previous State of the Union. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
President Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union address last night, in a speech that focused heavily on the civility (or lack thereof) between himself and Congress.
Conspicuous by its absence was the distinct lack of discussion around civil liberties and the rights of U.S. citizens to expect a certain level of privacy from government intrusion.
In fact, the term “privacy” came up only once in a speech that surpassed 7,000 words, with a brief assurance that “here and abroad, that privacy of ordinary people is not being violated.” Hardly a convincing rebuttal to allegations of a developing surveillance state.
While there are significant challenges facing the nation and any number of political hot potatoes for the President to juggle, it’s surprising that he didn’t address one of the most prevalent topics of 2013. Perhaps the proximity of this State of the Union address to his recent speech dedicated to surveillance issues played into the decision, but the wider attention afforded this occasion should still have warranted a deeper dive into this fundamental question of protecting civil liberties. The one sentence nod that it actually received leaves the impression of an issue being quickly swept under the carpet.
The irony of this approach is that privacy is one issue that will not be quickly silenced by limited measures of address.
The revelations from Edward Snowden continue to flow into the headlines as regularly as monthly employment figures or economic growth, making the story evergreen for the foreseeable future. Invasion of personal communications is something that affects everyone. The concern is so easy to relate to for the majority, yet conversely so easily and quickly misunderstood, that it would benefit the Obama administration to be seen to address privacy at every significant opportunity they get.
Any kind of brush off like that delivered in this State of the Union 2014 is only likely to increase suspicion of the government. A transparent approach to reform, with regular commentary from the President himself is the only course of action that will convince a doubting public that its mistrust is misplaced.
