The Senate approved an extension of the Patriot Act Tuesday in an 86-12 vote in order to reevaluate the law’s provisions in three months, angering some politicians on both sides of the aisle. The act was under public fire during former president George W. Bush’s presidency due to its controversial policies regarding individual privacy infringements but is no longer a staple item of the media. The recent decision to extend some of its components, however, promises to reignite the argument of whether or not civil liberties are as important as safety from terrorists.
First and foremost, Congress’ decision to postpone a final decision on the law’s legality was responsible. The Patriot Act was put into effect about a month after the September 11th attacks, eliminating restrictions on the government’s ability to wiretap, search emails and other records on mere suspicion that a person was plotting attacks against the United States. At the time, President Bush’s approval rating was soaring in the wake of a tragedy that inspired renewed patriotism. Ultimately, the act slipped into effect with little protestation. Ten years later, the bill exists in an entirely different nation fraught with Islamophobia and suspicions over the intents of truly innocent Muslim Americans.
The main problem with the Patriot Act is that, like many other surveillance laws, it seems to have slipped out of the minds of many Americans, including the media. In reality, it’s encouraging secrecy and distrust reminiscent of 1950s McCarthyism. The law was founded during a time of blinding passion and slipped through the cracks of the political system, exemplifying a complete government overreach of individual civil liberties. Every U.S. citizen should be entitled to his or her privacy rights, an idea on which the United States was founded.
Whether or not privacy rights are important, very little tangible results have come about since the policy was enacted. This is what Congressional Democrats and Republicans should concentrate on rather than attempt to battle it out in respect to ideology about the importance of privacy or the relevance of terrorism. In the meantime, Americans would benefit from refreshing themselves on the once-popular subject despite the fact that it’s less direct than other political matters.
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