Why is it so unlikely that Americans will take action to stop the outrageous electronic surveillance programs of the National Security Agency? The answer, to a depressing extent, is that our basic freedoms are threatened today because our political system and our very culture make it nearly impossible for us to act.
Back in 2005, when the New York Times reported that the NSA was engaged in probably-illegal wiretapping, it ignited a nationwide firestorm. When my progressive friends thought about the subject, it all fit a pattern: These thuggish Republicans, with their stupid militarism, their disregard for the Constitution, their disgusting certainty that God was on their side, of course they were also tapping peoples’ phones!