Edward Snowden, the “NSA leaker,” has many fans, of course. He has them on left and right. Earlier this week, some of them put up a bust of him in a New York park. City officials took it down pretty quickly — this tribute to Snowden was not authorized. Yet. But would the current mayor, Bill de Blasio, object?
I raise this and other questions in Impromptus today. And I’d like to add a couple of notes here.
Citizens and cities express themselves through their statuary. On Facebook, there is “liking” (I believe). So too in cities. The people of Seattle, for instance, have a statue of Lenin. Lenin was one of the worst, most oppressive men in all history.
I wonder whether Edward Snowden will become an issue in the Republican presidential primaries. In an interview with me on Tuesday, Senator Tom Cotton called him a “traitor” (and explained why). In his heralded speech at Berkeley, Senator Rand Paul had very warm words for Snowden. To hear the speech, go here. Paul expresses some ambivalence about Snowden, but he comes down as a clear admirer and defender. (I wrote about Senator Paul, Berkeley, and related matters in this NR piece.)
In any event, the Republican primaries are likely to be livelier than the Democratic primaries. Will there be Democratic primaries? Will one of our two major parties simply hand its nomination to this queen-in-waiting? That’s a little weird.