Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

51% Say Security More Important than Privacy
Rasmussen Reports ^ | 1/18/08

Posted on 01/18/2008 7:19:06 AM PST by freespirited

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans say that Security is more important than privacy. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 29% disagree and say privacy is more important. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure.

The survey also found public support for strict rules regarding identification needed to obtain drivers’ licenses. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say it is a good idea for the federal government to establish such rules, while only 17% disagree.

Over fifteen states have made headlines recently by speaking out against the REAL Identification Act of 2005, which would bar anyone not possessing the proper licenses from boarding airplanes or entering government buildings. In addition to concerns about privacy, many in the opposing states fear that states will not be able to create enough funding to comply with the technology required of new the licenses.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and supporters of the legislation feel there are too many types of identification that allow people into the country, and creating federal requirements on drivers’ licenses will limit the amount of illegal immigrants entering the United States.

The public is divided on whether or not the new legislation will cut down on illegal immigration. While 49% feel the Act is at least somewhat likely to reduce illegal immigration, 42% say it is not very or not at all likely.

Regarding the new drivers’ licenses required in the Act, a quarter of those surveyed (25%) see it as an invasion of privacy, while the majority (44%) disagrees. Thirty-one percent (31%) are not sure.

Nearly half of adults (45%) have followed news stories on the issue at least somewhat closely, while another half (50%) have not followed the stories closely or at all.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: security
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-65 next last
To: freespirited

Personal safety is at the bottom of my list of priorities.


41 posted on 01/18/2008 9:00:03 AM PST by dalereed (both)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: freespirited
Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist may destroy thousands with a bomb.

But the Teacher Unions destroy Generations of Americans.

Gov’t is the threat, security is not the problem.

When you turn to Gov’t to provide you for security, you are lost.

42 posted on 01/18/2008 9:07:49 AM PST by BGHater ('A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry'-Thomas Jefferson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: freespirited

Freedom and privacy are different concepts in my book. One can give up some privacy and still have a great deal of freedom.

That’s a pretty naive statement. Freedom and individual liberty (which is what Americans use to call privacy before the ACLU made it unacceptable) are inextricably linked. In modern American the facade that they are not has been created by things like, ‘Referrer Madness’, ‘violent TV’, ‘saving life’s’ and every foreign threat – real or imagine – that has come along in the 20th and now the 21st Century. True freedom isn’t the ability to move around in your own state or country or go to the church or store or bar that you choose; true freedom is the freedom of thought and the freedom to do w/ your body and property what you choose to do – so long as your not involving anyone else’s body or property w/out their consent. It is also this type of freedom that the government has learned is the very hardest type to curtail. The only real way to curtail thought and personal action is to be able to track these things in your populace so that when a law restricting a particular thought or personal action – there’s a laundry list of them out there – is past the governing forces know who to targeted and watch.

History bears watching; a country such as America, with the greatest military in the world, and the most armed populace in the world, has little to fear from foreign invasion and conquering but rather is much more likely to fall to its own tyrannical government.


43 posted on 01/18/2008 9:16:15 AM PST by PA_Country
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Perdogg
I am not surprised since about 67% of the population want a nanny-state.

It is a sad state of affairs. 

The bottom lin e on all of this stuff. It's not about privacy. It's not really about security. It's about control. The government thinks it owns you, so it figures it has the right to tag you however it sees fit.

44 posted on 01/18/2008 9:26:32 AM PST by zeugma (Hillary! - America's Ex-Wife!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: freespirited

Substitute “liberty” for privacy” - which is what the debate is really all about - and see what the numbers are.

“Security” my foot. It’s just the excuse used by the G to oppress us wee folk.


45 posted on 01/18/2008 9:38:58 AM PST by karnage
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: zeugma

PING

You hit it on the head man…

And the sad part is that Americans today agree with and let it happen


46 posted on 01/18/2008 9:47:24 AM PST by PA_Country
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: PA_Country

Are you opposed to airport screening of your luggage? After all, it is an invasion of your privacy.


47 posted on 01/18/2008 10:08:39 AM PST by freespirited (Still a proud member of the Stupid Party. It beats the Evil Party any day of the week.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: BGHater
But the Teacher Unions destroy Generations of Americans.

Tens of thousands of FReepers have been subjected to the idiocy of the Teachers Unions. Yet they managed not only to survive, but to see through these liberal kooks.

We are kidding ourselves if we think we could survive Al Qaeda nearly as well.

48 posted on 01/18/2008 10:12:56 AM PST by freespirited (Still a proud member of the Stupid Party. It beats the Evil Party any day of the week.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: freespirited
Yes WE can.

However, I guarantee you that Gov’t school is more of a threat than AQ will ever be.

49 posted on 01/18/2008 10:24:29 AM PST by BGHater ('A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry'-Thomas Jefferson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: freespirited
Freedom and privacy are different concepts in my book.

Then you need to buy a new book. Invest some time and research the actual writings of the men who founded this nation. Actual history, as opposed to the propaganda mislabeled as textbooks by the Socialists infesting our schools.

All politicians, especially the more pleasant sounding and seemingly well-intentioned ones, are would-be tyrants. By its' very nature, the political class attracts narcissists, messianics, demogogues and megalomaniacs. Thus it is, and thus has it always been.

Over the course of human history, far more people have been killed, enslaved, and oppressed by those supposedly charged with their safekeeping than by all the rogue criminals and foreign bogeymen they conjure up to keep us in fear.

Our country's founders were not nearly naive enough to believe that the mere presence of democratic elections would keep us from ever handing the sceptre to a misanthrope. They also realized that the majority of the population can neither necessarily be trusted to act in its' own best interest. This is precisely the reason they give for our representative form of government, and the constitutional limits placed upon it.

Never empower any politician or governmental entity, with a tool that you would not want placed in the hands of an absolute tyrant, because eventually one will sit in the Oval Office. Bank on it.

The White House may have already played host to one or two individuals who would gladly have turned on us, were it not for that pesky Bill of Rights.

Will we be able to resist the next? Our ability to provide for our own safety depends upon privacy and freedom. Try to have safety at the expense of privacy or freedom, and we'll have none of them long. Government is the problem to all life's solutions, not the other way round.

50 posted on 01/18/2008 3:20:09 PM PST by CowboyJay (Taking fire from inside your own perimeter is the greater of two evils. Just say no to RiNO's.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: bamahead; Abathar; Abcdefg; Abram; akatel; albertp; AlexandriaDuke; Alexander Rubin; Allerious; ...
Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans say that Security is more important than privacy. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 29% disagree and say privacy is more important. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure.

Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.

51 posted on 01/18/2008 3:30:12 PM PST by SubGeniusX (The People have Unenumerated Rights, The Government does not have Unenumerated Powers!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: corlorde
People are addicted to government. They want the government to take care of them, protect them, provide for them.

Amen to that point. I'll take the risk that comes with liberty any day. Nobody ever said freedom is safe.
52 posted on 01/18/2008 3:52:04 PM PST by Stevieboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: freespirited
Technically, I think we have all given up some of our privacy with the passing of the Patriot Act. I haven't felt that I am no longer free.

You should consider changing your screen name.
53 posted on 01/18/2008 3:57:56 PM PST by Stevieboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: freespirited; BGHater

Marxism is our nation’s most serious threat. There are Marxists and their Useful Idiots throughout our government, in all of government bureaucracies, media, and culture.

The Marxists **most** important and effective weapon in its fight against freedom are our SCHOOLS!

We will and can survive a nuclear suitcase bomb. Freedom will NOT survive if the Marxists succeed in indoctrinating the next generation of voters!


54 posted on 01/18/2008 4:09:52 PM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: BGHater

However, I guarantee you that Gov’t school is more of a threat than AQ will ever be.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thankfully, there is at least one other person, besides myself, who sees government schooling as a **serious** threat to our freedom. When are thinking people going to wake up?


55 posted on 01/18/2008 4:11:54 PM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: CowboyJay

Socialists infesting our schools.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Call them what they are: Marxists and Useful Idiots!


56 posted on 01/18/2008 4:13:06 PM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: freespirited

Since security is an illusion, those who imagine that Gummint can provide it are also not thinking clearly but imagining and have not the first clue what Gummint is.


57 posted on 01/18/2008 4:16:39 PM PST by RightWhale (Dean Koonz is good, but my favorite authors are Dun and Bradstreet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wintertime
Thankfully, there is at least one other person, besides myself, who sees government schooling as a **serious** threat to our freedom. When are thinking people going to wake up?

You can add me to your list, even though my opinion annoys some FReepers because I'm a Candian and a Ron Paul fan. I know it's none of my business... just sayin'.
58 posted on 01/18/2008 4:21:28 PM PST by Stevieboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: freespirited
Private but unsafe does not make particular sense to me.

Please reconsider your screen name.

59 posted on 01/18/2008 5:53:52 PM PST by elkfersupper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: freespirited
Are you opposed to airport screening of your luggage?

And my person, and my "papers".

60 posted on 01/18/2008 5:56:10 PM PST by elkfersupper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-65 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson