Death to the Patriot Act?

DATELINE ZERO – This is something I honestly never thought I would read. Some of the more horrendous aspects of the Patriot Act could well be dismantled, according to some of the news reports.

It’s nice to read about … but I doubt it will become reality. The powers that be won’t allow the Patriot Act to become unraveled. They certainly will not allow some optimistic, noble, newcomers to throw a wet towel over the plans of the Washington DC state supremacists.

Maybe I am overly pessimistic about the whole situation in Washington DC these days, but I doubt anything will become of this. Nonetheless, it could become an interesting story to follow. And part of me still wants to believe the system isn’t broken …

WIRED reported the other day:

The House failed to extend three key expiring provisions of the Patriot Act on Tuesday, elements granting the government broad and nearly unchecked surveillance power on its own public.

The act was hastily adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks. Three measures of the act are set to expire at month’s end, and the House’s lack of a two-thirds vote on Tuesday failed to move the sunsetting deadline to December 8, as proposed. The vote was 277-148.

What makes this politically interesting, to me, is that the Patriot Act is largely a piece of Republican legislation — it was a Republican-led Congress that passed it. Now it’s a Republican-led House that might begin unraveling the Act, thanks to the idealism of some newly-elected politicians.

Remember, too, that the Democrat Party had been in control of both houses of Congress since 2006, and continued to keep the Patriot Act alive. They were incredibly vocal about how horrible the Act was … and yet when they had their chance they kept the Patriot Act alive.

So these supposedly anti-Patriot Act, anti-war Democrats could be made to look like a bunch of asses if they fail to jump on this and support the dismantling of the Act.

That said, I wanna point to two realities:
1 – The two party system in the U.S. is a joke. It’s closer to a single party state than they let on.

Fact is, the Donkey vs Elephant bickering is a simple game of misdirection, to give the voters something to hope for. Why? Because…
2 – they need to keep as many hot-button issues (like the Patriot Act) on the table as possible.
There’s a reason why so many of these issues are rarely laid to rest, and yet they keep creating new ones. The politicians in Congress need something to fight about … for the cameras. American politics is manufactured drama. It’s as real as a “professional” wrestling match.

More in the news:
Some tea party lawmakers in the House helped to vote down Patriot Act provisions on Tuesday, out of concerns about civil liberties. Surprised, liberals applaud…
New Republican team in charge has fumbled on what should have been easy passage of bills that had overwhelming support…
Not over: The House could reconsider the Patriot Act as early as Thursday…

I don’t doubt that some of the newly elected congress people are sincere. But they can bicker all they want, and try to do the right thing. In the end, though, the course of action has already been decided by others.

This is the problem with the so-called representative government in the U.S. today. The elected representatives make up only something like 3% of the U.S. Federal Government. They have zero influence these days, and are only there for show — to keep a mask of legitimacy to the system.

Flashback to November of last year when an open mic picked up an exasperated congressman complaining aloud that the work of Congress — at least on that particular day — was “rigged.”

The actual words of Sen. Michael Bennet:
“Because — because, it’s all rigged. I mean, the whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don’t get to discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck is just rigged. This stuff’s rigged …”

Does this make me sound contemptuous? Guess I am feeling that way today. I’m feeling cynical, too.

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