Originally Posted by
TSORon
Uhhh jim, you do realize that you have just advocated for the complete dominance of the citizens by its own government, right? If your theory can be applied to changing from one measurement system to the metric system, it can be applied to just about anything, including the TSA, right jim?
IOW, "we are switching from the MMW system to the WBI systems, deal with it!", that seems to me exactly what you are saying the government should do. Did I misread your intent here? Are you honestly advocating this as how government should deal with its citizens?
Yes, you're misreading my intent. (Long rant follows.)
The whole point of having a representative democracy is that we elect people to make decisions on our behalf. A "pure democracy" only works if the body being governed is small enough, and dedicated enough, to engage with every single issue. That might work in a small town in New Hampshire, but once you get past that level, it's too unwieldy to work effectively. So, we elect people to govern for us, and then we ask them to make all the tons of decisions regarding government services that affect us.
That doesn't mean we like what they decide for us, of course; hence, the whole "petition the government for a redress of grievances" bit. (Not to mention periodic elections.) But that doesn't change the fact that we expect them to act in our best interest.
Sometimes that best interest doesn't sync with public opinion. That's fine. Sometimes the public is right; sometimes the public is wrong. We expect our leaders to exercise judgment beyond simply voting whichever way the latest poll tells them to vote.
I have no doubt that, should the TSA decide to implement MMW/WBI as a mandatory screening technique, the argument they will make will be "this is what's best for you". I don't disagree with the government's right to make that decision. I may disagree with the decision itself, and may petition my elected representatives with my reasons. But that's how it's supposed to work. If several thousand like-minded people petition our representatives with good, substantive reasons for changing TSA, one hopes that those receiving our petition will give careful consideration to those ideas ... and then decide to do the right thing, wherever that decision goes.
I am mindful that a majority of people in this country once thought, at various times, that a slave was only worth 60% of a free man, that women didn't deserve to vote, and that segregating people in public accomodations based on race was perfectly acceptable. Majority rule is not the same as just rule.
I'll never argue that TSA should change because a majority of Americans think they should change. I'll argue that TSA should change because they're doing the wrong things.