I feel like it's tough to transpose the mindset of 1995 into the zeitgeist of 2015. The average citizen of 1995 was a lot less sensitive to the every day minutia of disparate civil rights flashpoints that culminate to create the picture we have of civil rights today. There is also a lot more deliberately controversial political content produced by today's media which sets up an environment where there's something of an implicit expectation that everyone will or should have a "stance" on every political issue. The world of 2015 is one where every average citizen has their own set of pet grievances that are wont to implicate the government in a violation of civil rights.

Can you imagine how the citizens of 1995 would have reacted to a Snowden of the time? It'd be a complete non-event.