General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Americans Are Outraged Because in Voting for Obama, They Thought They Were Rejecting Bush [View all]Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)Of course the public are not literally consciously demanding the surveillance program, But when we have a political culture that has a zero tolerance policy for any acts of terror - Whenever - even one single terror related death of an American occurs anywhere in the world - all hell breaks lose and there is a culture of demanding questions about who is to blame and why - in such a political culture of course a demand is created that everything and anything be done - even intrusive surveillance. This is not how it should be. It is how it is. As long as the public is scared of its own shadow - you will not hear a whole lot of complaints about this program from the majority of people. Just wait and see how many candidates for public office or office holders seeking reelection run on a campaign promise to end this surveillance program. No doubt there will be a few - but very few. If the public stops being afraid - then you will hear screams of outrage and then candidates and elected officials will be calling for its end. Until then the spying will go on and most people will not care. They should care -but they won't as long as fear remains in the air.
.