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Fast forward to 2013 and Obama dismisses “majoritarian check” as just a bunch of “hype.”
Via BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski:
In an October 2001 appearance on Chicago public television State-Sen. Barack Obama predicted a “majoritarian check” when mass surveillance started encroaching on the majority of Americans’ civil liberties.
“I’m always more concerned about encroachment on civil rights and civil liberties that apply selectively to people. When they apply to everybody there tends to be sort of a majoritarian check,” Obama said. “When we come to the wiretap provisions for example if those laws start encroaching too much on people’s privacy the average person, me, Joe, everybody starts griping and complaining.”