Earlier this year, most polls showed [tag]Americans[/tag] largely split on the issue of the [tag]Bush[/tag] administration conducting [tag]warrantless[/tag] [tag]search[/tag]es. I had suspected that the public would be far more concerned about yesterday’s revelations because, unlike warrantless wiretaps, this NSA program deal with everyone’s phone calls.
Apparently, I was wrong.
Americans by nearly a 2-1 ratio call the surveillance of telephone records an acceptable way for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, expressing broad unconcern even if their own calling patterns are scrutinized.
Lending support to the administration’s defense of its anti-terrorism intelligence efforts, 63 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the secret program, disclosed Thursday by USA Today, is justified, while far fewer, 35 percent, call it unjustified.
Indeed, 51 percent approve of the way President Bush is handling the protection of privacy rights, while 47 percent disapprove — hardly a robust rating, but one that’s far better than his overall job approval, in the low 30s in recent polls.
When poll respondents were asked specifically if it would bother them if there was a [tag]record[/tag] of their [tag]phone calls[/tag], 66% said it would not.
Oddly enough, the public was not willing to give up on [tag]privacy[/tag] rights altogether. Nearly half of poll respondents (45%) said the government is not doing enough to protect Americans’ rights as it investigates terrorism. How does one explain how so many people want more privacy protection but are unconcerned about records of all of their phone calls going into a secret NSA database for unknown reasons? Beats me.
What’s more, the small-government crowd isn’t mad about the NSA database program; it’s mad about journalists telling us about the program. Eight in 10 conservatives said secretly collecting domestic telephone records is acceptable, while nearly six in 10 conservatives said media disclosure of the practice was wrong.
There are a few other angles to the poll to keep in mind.
First, the poll was taken just last night, about 12 hours or so after Americans first heard about the NSA program. Sometimes stories like this need time to sink in. People’s first reaction might change when they pick up the phone today to call their doctor (or their spouse, or their bank, or their 900 number) and think to themselves, “Hmm, the NSA is going to put this call in a [tag]secret[/tag] government [tag]database[/tag].”
Second, a poll like this is likely to have political consequences. Republican skepticism about this controversy was shaky to begin with. If everyone on the Hill is convinced that two-in-three Americans have no problem with the NSA secretly collecting domestic phone records, then GOP interest in hearings and oversight will go from minimal to non-existent.
If so, the coming weeks will be disappointing: Bush will feel emboldened on the issue, Dems will shift their focus elsewhere, and the story will fade. At least until a different [tag]poll[/tag] says the opposite.