What will break the surveillance state?

[scarletwoman]

9. Publicly funded election campaigns. Seriously.

Our Congresscritters spend 4-6 hours a DAY soliciting donations for their next campaign. The corporate lobbyists step up and offer endless variations of quid pro quo. Government contracts are the motherlode, especially Defense Department contracts.

Congress doesn't vote on legislation that will benefit US, they vote for legislation that benefits their corporate benefactors. Their corporate benefactors benefit VERY well from a state of perpetual war, which justifies the continued expansion of the Surveillance State, which in turn provides even more fat contracts.

The other important element is the revolving door between the private sector and government officials. Perhaps, if private money were completely removed from politics, we might eventually create a class of legislators who actually want to work on behalf of We the People. Such legislators would be of little interest to the private sector, and the revolving door might eventually rust into immobility from disuse.

Such legislators might also decide to de-fund the perpetual war, which would lead to a drying up of all those lucrative Defense Department contracts, which would then begin the process of starving the beast - the Surveillance State - out of existance.

Just my thoughts...

sw