House Introduces Bill to Repeal the Patriot Act

Nearly every time I fly, I hear someone in the security line (which to me resembles a cattle chute) remarking that they're in fact glad for the inconvenience, as they somehow feel safer. Nearly every family member or friend with whom I discuss Edward Snowden's revelations and the vast injustice of what the NSA is doing couldn't care less.

I really don't have much hope for this bill. But I really wish I could believe in it as much as my younger self would have.

It's possible they don't believe the Snowden revelations represent a loss of civil liberties. I actually find this to be a pretty rational belief: There's much talk about NSA data harvesting efforts as a "machinery of totalitarianism", but precious little (any?) evidence it's actually been employed that way. Real harm, not just the potential for harm, is what will motivate American citizens and their political leaders.

After all, we have an election every four years giving one of us the potential power to kill millions and end civilization as we know it; that he or she also has the power to authorize computer systems that trawl through domestic phone records looking for connections to foreign bad guys doesn't seem that alarming in comparison.

It's hard to know. Of course the cards are stacked against any chance to the surveillance state, especially in the Senate, but then again this is happening within the context of several clauses of the Patriot Act (including section 215) sunsetting unless Congress extends it by June. And this bill has been crafted with an eye to getting transpartisan support; it's huge that there's a Republican co-sponsor, and how many other things do Freedom Works and Demand Progress work together on?

Also, portions of this bill were actually passed as an amendment to the Defense Authorization last June, with a surprisingly large majority. So, we shall see.