On Friday, the US Senate renewed a warrantless wiretapping program that began under the Bush administration. The vote was not even close at 73-23. Democratic opposition to this program, and much of the Patriot Act, has seemingly disappeared now that Barack Obama is president and supportive of such measures.

While it is legal for the government to use these methods to gather intelligence on foreigners, the fear is that it will be used against American citizens, a direct violation of the fourth amendment. The constitution protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures, and any searches are supposed to require a warrant that is judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. Since 9/11, this protection has been under constant attack in the name of fighting terror.

Since the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, gun advocates have come to the defense of the second amendment in force. As a resident of the South, my Facebook wall and Twitter feed have been inundated with posts and pictures on gun rights. The threat of the simplest forms of gun control has millions up in arms. One has to wonder why equal outrage has not been declared over actual assaults on the fourth amendment, which is arguably a more important right and freedom.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote that "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." In the post 9/11 world, we have come dangerously close to doing just that. In the name of fighting terrorism, we have allowed the US to slip closer and closer into a police state.

What is perhaps most shocking is how much Americans voluntarily give up their privacy. Social networks now know more about us than we do about ourselves. As recent dust ups at Instagram show, these networks are chomping at the bit to use this data. While some feign ignorance, it would be foolish to think that anything put online at this point can not be found and used by someone, yet millions of people continue to put sensitive information about themselves on the web everyday.

The prioritizing of the second amendment over the fourth leads me to believe that freedom is not the issue most are concerned with. Rather, people are more worried about someone taking their toys away. If freedom was the issues, the same people arguing over gun rights would have been fighting warrantless wiretaps for years, and probably would have been a lot less supportive of President Bush. Sadly, while the talk has been about gun control and the second amendment, our real freedoms have been slipped out the back door.