Donald Silberger Calls On President Obama To Give Edward J. Snowden A Full Pardon

Dr. Donald Silberger, the current Chair of the Hudson Valley Libertarian Party who twice ran as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for New York State Lt. Governor and once ran as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for United States Senate, has called upon President Obama to give Edward J. Snowden a full pardon for his whistleblowing. Dr. Silberger’s statement on the issue follows:

“President Obama should give Edward J. Snowden a full pardon for his whistleblowing, and offer him safe passage either home to the USA or to another destination of his choice, should that be his preference. Snowden should be unrestrained and remain in possession of all the rights and liberties he is entitled to as an American citizen. It does not advance our national interest for Snowden to be beholden to Vladimir Putin, of the presumably retired KGB.

Snowden should be accompanied by, and free to exchange ideas with, media representatives. He should be allowed to tell us his story, interviewed by pundits of both “conservative” and “progressive” bents. He should be able to accept invitations to address the public uncensored. We The People are interested in what he may have to say.

Snowden has informed us, his fellow citizens, that our government secretly spies on us. It is only fair that a prying government itself be subjected to surveillance, by its citizenry. Without such citizen oversight, democracy degenerates into a deceptive joke upon a deluded and manipulated people.

Officialdom has alleged that the actions of whistleblowers “hurt America”. The “America” of officials is excessively abstract for “hurt”. Persons can be hurt. But revelations to us do us no harm. Officials in Uncle Sam garb who abuse their authority deserve whatever chagrin their exposure brings them.

Our whistleblowers tell us citizens what we must know if we are to exercise our citizenship wisely, e.g. by voting knowledgeably. In a democratic constitutional republic, we citizens choose not only who will perform the proper functions of government as our elected servants; we must be informed also of the specific ends towards which those servants will act, supported as they are by our labor and by the taxes imposed upon us, the governed.

Our public servants, whom we hopefully expect to be acting on our behalf, reflect upon us as a people. They can, if ill-advised, bring down upon us the world’s ire. They can violate their duty to us. This duty requires them to function as our servants, and not as our masters.”