How many elections have to come and go before it's clear that not enough people care? I'm not sure a sober analysis of the data can be painted with such a dismissive brush.
The constitution-free zones, the airport security-theatre, the electronic surveillance-state -- no matter how many times abuses and power-creep hit the news, no-one much cares. I'm pretty much convinced now that even the limited outcry about the TSA's porno-scanners was just a media-creation to fill space in the annual travel stories around the holidays. Because they're still there. But no-one's talking about it anymore.
And, honestly, we shouldn't be surprised. The Drunk-Driving laws provided plenty of data going back decades. People just don't seem to think too much about having their rights trampled in the name of 'safety'.
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Sure plenty of people are talking about it -- PATRIOT Act renewal was _the_ biggest topic on blogs and Twitter in February, with opposition both on the right and left. It's just that most of the mainstream media isn't covering it.
Most "civilians" I speak with have an additude that if you have something to hide the government should find out what you're hiding. The government is, in my experience, obeying the will of the people here.
You're not going to win this battle by getting the chattering classes to agree with you. The in-laws (or people at your place of worship, or people bowling in a non-ironic fashion) are the folks you need to convince that civil liberties protect them just as much as they protect people that they're afraid of.
I opted out for the first time last week in San Diego (thankfully Seattle doesn't have them at every checkpoint... yet).
It was kind of disturbing. While the TSA agent that (man)handled me was polite and professional, I couldn't help but get the feeling that the patdown is designed deliberately to be overly thorough as a "lesson" taught to troublemakers like myself.
What is far more disturbing than that is that in the probably ~100 people I passed security with, I was the only one that opted out. One lady got the patdown anyways after going through the Rapescan, though.
I took the train across the country rather than flying, and know others making similar tradeoffs. And hey, Congress defunded the next round of scanner purchases. So we are having an impact.
