Where candidates stand on NSA surveillance. Yahoo News.

Yahoo/AP/Getty. 

Yahoo has compiled a list of the 2016 presidential candidates and their opinions on the NSA's collection of U.S. citizens phone and internet data. This list is not comprehensive because some people have been left off but it should serve as a basic guide. I'm going to forgo the usual format with my posts for this one and post my commentary after stating each candidates position. As always, the original article will have more information. 

-U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R): Strongly against NSA surveillance. Out of all the candidates, Paul has condemned the NSA the most and would go further to stop surveillance. Instead of supporting the ending of the bulk phone data collection with the USA Freedom Act, he would stop ALL data collection of U.S. citizens. 

My take on Paul is that he is by far the most serious candidate about this issue. He isn't doing it because he wants votes, he actually believes that ending the surveillance should be a huge priority. Unlike many of the other candidates, I expect him to keep his word if he is elected. 

-U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R); Weakly against NSA surveillance. Cruz would not go as far as Rand Paul would. He supports the Patriot Act alternative, the USA Freedom Act, which would end phone data collection but would not stop all data collection. 

Cruz seems to be splitting the middle here, which I see as more of a political move then as acting out of true conviction. Still, he is at least willing to consider that the bulk collection has gone to far, which puts him ahead of other candidates. 

-Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R): Supports the Patriot Act and further surveillance. He claims that the act could have prevented 9/11 if it had been in place at the time and that the program had largely kept America Safe.

Not what I would have expected from a Tea Party candidate, since the movement was, at one point at least, mostly libertarians and fiscal conservatives. This greatly changes my opinion of him as a candidate. I used to respect him, but now he's just as bad as Bush or Christie. Speaking of which... 

-Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R): Supports the Patriot Act and surveillance. He has praised the Obama administration for continuing the program calling it the "best thing Obama has done". 

I consider the NSA surveillance program the worst thing George Bush did by a couple of orders of magnitude. The fact that he then handed it over to Obama, and ideological enemy on almost every other count, makes it even worse. Since a major factor of my disapproval of the NSA programs is the fact that the political left could use it as a superweapon against the right (to be fair, the reverse is just as true), hearing a Republican politician defending not only the program but the guy in charge of it makes me wonder if I should be more worried about authoritarians of both stripes then the Left/Right divide... Needless to say I am no fan of Jeb Bush...

-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R): Supports the Patriot Act and surveillance. He is on record calling people opposed to surveillance "civil liberties extremists". He also thinks that Libertarianism is "dangerous".

See what I mean about authoritarians? What the hell is a "civil liberties extremist"? I have never liked  Chris Christie for his stance on gun rights and other civil liberties, but this puts the nail in the coffin for me. He's about the worst candidate the right has to offer and is in the running for worst out of any party, including joke candidates like that guy in the last election that wore a boot as a hat.

A much better candidate for president then Chris Christie. 

If he is the only choice the Republicans put up, I'm voting independent or Democrat. 

-Carly Fiorina (R): Unclear. She did help the NSA when she was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. She also had a professional relationship with Michael Hayden, who was the Director of the CIA. 

I don't know what to think of Fiorina. I don't really think she is all that credible as a candidate in the first place, and I think the best she can hope for is a Vice Presidential posting. I need to hear a lot more from her before I decide, but her connections scare me a bit. 

-Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R): Against bulk collection. Huckabee said he would repeal the program and protect Americans privacy rights. It is unknown if he would support a half-measure like the USA Freedom Act. 

A pleasant surprise for me, because I never thought of Huckabee as a defender of civil liberties. I need to hear a bit more detail from him and what his plans are, but at the very least he is saying the right things. I've moved him up a bit in my presidential rankings. 

-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R): No position listed. 

This is something that Walker needs to come out with one way or the other as soon as possible. I think many people already see him as weak on defense and mostly focused on domestic issues. Obama was the same way and look how that worked out for us... As a voter who is on the fence about him, he needs to take a position for me to decide. Anyways, given his status as a leading member of the Libertarian wing of the Republican Party my guess is that he would be at the very least in favor of reform. Of course, I would have said the same thing about Marco Rubio.

-Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffe (D): Strongly opposed to data collection. He claims to be a supporter of the 4th amendment and says the data collection goes to far. As a senator he voted for the Patriot Act twice.

I don't know much about Chaffe, but he sounds like a flip-flopper to me. He voted for the surveillance back when he was in the Senate but now he opposes it? I'll give him credit for agreeing with me about the issue, since I changed my mind myself, but I wonder if he isn't just playing politics?

-Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I): Strongly opposed to data collection. On this issue he is closer to Rand Paul then anyone else. He also voted against the Patriot Act.

I'll give Sanders credit for being consistent. He was always against the Patriot Act, and was pretty much right about what it would turn into. I disagree with him on every other issue though, but put a gun to my head and I might vote for him over Chris Christie.

-Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D): Weakly opposed to data collection. She supports the USA Freedom Act but voted for the Patriot Act.

I think Hilary Clinton only cares about one thing and that is power. She says she is opposed to surveillance but I doubt she does on any authentic level. Still, I have to give her credit for at least recognizing that people are upset about the issue.

There are a few other candidates that Yahoo didn't list, but I am not sure any of them are all that popular in the first place. All that being said I think I can say that a few people were definitely taken out of the running for me. Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio talked themselves out of a possible voter on this issue, and Carly Fiorina and Scott Walker need to answer the question before I am willing to support them.

Still, I am not am not a one-issue voter. I'm a huge supporter of gun rights, and if the choice is between a pro-gun, pro-NSA candidate and the anti-gun, anti-NSA candidate, I would probably choose the first. In reality though, I would vote third party Libertarian though so I could get both. The problem is that I really shouldn't have to throw my vote away to a third party that doesn't have a chance of winning, especially considering that libertarians are a large faction in the Republican Party. Being opposed to gun control and the NSA surveillance programs should be fairly mainstream in both parties, but it clearly isn't.