Germans illuminate message on US embassy

[Californeeway]

68. I can appreciate and respect your ability to say it and stand by it.

I could readily agree that this country is rapidly decaying into a police state. I think your break down of the spy network needing only to lock arms with the militarized police forces. I don't think it's all the way there yet, but it doesn't need to be for people to take it seriously and care.

I am looking at the world outside our little DU bubble and people are already tuning out and moving on. They feel helpless so they put their head down and move on. I think sometimes we talk up the police state so much that people feel like it can't be defeated, but I think it can and it's a mistake to make it sound so unstoppable, that just kills hope that it can be defeated.

I think the main thing is getting more and more people to think about this until there is enough to create real political pressure. This will require talking to politically unmotivated people with a poor understanding of how our government works and convincing them to engage. It's my honest opinion that using hyperbole that can be quickly shown to be false or exaggeration ultimately destroy an argument and I think things are bad enough now that we don't need to exaggerate. I get the frog in the pot thing. Really I do.

I've been turning the police state thing over in my mind long before Obama became president, I'm long past the upset and passionate phase. I'm now in the cynical long drawn out campaign mode. People laughed at me 6 years or so ago talking about the surveillance state building up in secret. Now it's obvious that it's here and simply electing a Democratic president doesn't change it. But I think our last best chance to get rid of it is Obama. Whether people like that or not. That's the hand we are dealt.