Why, next, you'll be advocating the employment of common sense asa determinate factor in governmental decision making.

I've an elderly (older than I, so old I served in "Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard") neighbor who travels by air at most once a year. She donates freely to political candidates, mostly Democrats, and writes our Congressman (D) regularly. She believes, firmly, sincerely and with unalterable conviction, that only the thin blue line of the TSA protects her from mad jihadist bombers targeting flights from ACT to IAH or DFW (Well, they don't go any where else from here!).

She's joined or at least aided by countless others whose opinions and perceptions motivate the votes of Congresscritters and successive Executive Branches. There's no real practical accounting involved in the existence and much of the process of the TSA, and no real "cost/benefit" analysis in the continuance of most of its efforts. Driven by public opinion or their perception thereof, legislators and presidential advisers make most of the decisions involving "Travel Security". Like the giant fence being erected - and the phallic connotation should not be ignored - along the Border, "Symbolism" as opposed to "Substance", we have descended into a sociopolitical morass in which "Bread and Circuses" to appeal to the majority have largely replaced common sense and pragmatic evaluation as ingredients in the recipe for governance.