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DIGITS: AP-NORC Center poll highlights Americans' two views on civil liberties, terrorism
• When it comes to the balance between civil liberties and the war on terrorism, Americans seem to want the best of both worlds.
• By an almost 20-point margin in a recent poll, they say it's more important for the government to protect the rights and freedoms of citizens than to keep the public safe from terrorism. Yet by an equally large margin, they say it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice rights and freedoms in order to stop terrorists.
• Those findings, from a survey released last week by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, highlight the public's ambivalence when it comes to the war on terror.
• The revelation of massive government surveillance via National Security Agency documents released to the media by Edward Snowden caused just a small shift in the public's preference toward rights over safety, yet majorities still want both. An AP-NORC Center poll in 2011, before Snowden, found that 54 percent said the government should prioritize the protection of rights and freedoms, while 64 percent said it was sometimes necessary to sacrifice those freedoms. After Snowden, 58 percent say protect rights, and 59 percent say it's sometimes necessary to sacrifice them.
• But the majorities on either side mask a divided public.
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Today in History
The Associated Press
• Today is Tuesday, Sept. 17, the 260th day of 2013. There are 105 days left in the year.
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• Today's Highlight in History:
• On Sept. 17, 1862, more than 3,600 men were killed, many more wounded, captured or left missing, in the Civil War Battle of Antietam (an-TEE'-tum) in Maryland; although the battle itself proved inconclusive, it effectively halted the Confederates' advance into Maryland.
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• On this date:
• In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
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