Ron Paul: Whistle-blowers are heroic, patriotic – USA TODAY

Ron Paul 5:06 p.m. ET March 13, 2017

Ron Paul(Photo: Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty Images)

Its deeply troubling that so many in the news media and in both political parties attack the efforts of whistle-blowers and those who publish their revelations. These individuals risk it all, not for their own wealth and glory, but to inform us of what is being done to us and in our name.

Their releases are both heroic and pro-American.

We are told that the government must be allowed to operate in secret in order to keep us safe, but how much security do we really have if we allow the government to deprive us of our liberty?

What have we learned from whistle-blowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning or WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and others? We now know that our government views the Fourth Amendment as a mere suggestion, rather than a constraint on its actions.

Our consumer products have been turned into listening devices that the government can turn on and off at will. Those who ruled East Germany could only fantasize about such technology and its potential for controlling anyone who disagrees with the government.

What WikiLeaks reveals: Our view

Revelations last week that our televisions may actually be watching us? Has the CIA been reading George Orwells 1984 as an instruction manual?

If we are to be a free society, we must demand the right to know about government malfeasance. We must reject the anti-American notion that the government has the right to know everything about us, but that we have no right to know anything about the government. We cannot entrust our life, liberty and happiness to an unelected shadow government that operates in secret and is accountable to no one.

History teaches of the horrors that result when a people are willing to sacrifice their liberty for the false promises of government-provided security. Totalitarianisms of the left and right have thrived in such an environment.

Whistle-blowers are the truth-seekers, and we must demand the truth. Who does not want to know the truth? Sadly, in an empire of lies, the truth has become treason.

Ron Paul, a former Republican congressman from Texas and Libertarian Party presidential candidate, is host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report.

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Ron Paul: Whistle-blowers are heroic, patriotic - USA TODAY