Originally Posted by
essxjay
Who is this "we" are you talking about? You certainly don't speak for me.
Well, I think we the citizens of the USA all bear some collective responsibility for the over-reaction and paranoia of this nation post 9/11. (I would apply something similar to the UK and other nations.) Now there are certainly some amongst us who have spoken our or taken action against it, and the responsibility is arguably much less among many of those. But the nation as a whole has still allowed this to happen.
Hypothetically, if in the 2002 or 2004 elections, every elected official who had supported paranoia (DHS, TSA, Patriot Act excesses, etc.) had been tossed out of office--and I'm not just talking about Bush or Republicans--then I might believe that a rogue government was responsible for this and not the citizenry. But the citizens as a whole have effectively endorsed the paranoia in the 2002, 2004, 2006, and likely 2008 elections.