That's a big part of why Manning was treated so horribly and without any sense of proportion to what he did. It simply wasn't (all) about him. It was about the people who might be thinking of following in his footsteps.
Sign the petition if you haven't (https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snow...), and don't stop there: write letters, make phone-calls, visit your officials' offices, get involved at the party level and see about pushing things there, give money to organizations like the EFF. If anyone else has other suggestions (or more details about how to do any of the above, or interest in coordinating any of the above), please add!
[1] Congressional oversight is a joke when money is so important in politics and the only people who will know about the decision are the contractors who will be contributing to your or your opponent's campaign next cycle based on whether you let them keep the contract.
Join if you're in the area, start a parallel group otherwise.
Similarly, if there was proof that no real effort is being expended to identify citizen data vs non-citizen data, it would be 'worse'.
At least in the eyes of those who are following the traditional media account and are still giving the government the benefit of the doubt and buying their defenses. [3]
[1] At least he hadn't presented any, thus far. Just a document outlining the technical capability of bulk copy and 'intercept' existed and his assertion that he could initiate those intercepts without any oversight, let alone legal basis.
[2] Which is something alleged by another whistle-blower, but again, without iron-clad proof. Which is apparently what you absolutely have to have, for the mainstream media to pay any attention to the story. (And even then, they'll probably just talk about you, personally.)
[3] Despite those defenses having to be walked back time and again for containing falsehoods and no corrected defenses being offered.
Kids in America are quite literally taught to go to war at every possible juncture, like it's a valid way to solve some conflict.
Edited to add: don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming you're lying, just that your experience doesn't necessarily generalize.
You also don't realize that swearing allegiance to a country is a very, very bizarre and backwards thing to be doing. The rest of the developed world is shocked by this practice, but you were taught so young you don't even know it's strange and wrong.