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Comment by alexeisadeski3 | Hacker News Reader

Great to see the Democrats out in front on this one!

That was my thought as well. I hate to see how most democrats have reacted on this issue, goose-stepping with the administration.

Californians need to unite to vote Dianne Feinstein out of office. We can't be the worlds technology leader and keep re-electing the biggest proponent of using that technology for government surveillance.

Without serious campaign finance reform, I'm not sure how likely that is. I'm all for it, just don't see it happening, sadly. The chances of someone on the right beating here are very low, but they're better than someone on the right. Sad state of affairs out here.

What does finance reform have to do with that?

The barrier to entry for a non-incumbent candidate is so high because of the amount of money incumbents are able to raise. Therefore, a new candidate entering to pose a real challenge is pretty unlikely, and it shouldn't be.

That's how partisan politics works. You demonize the other party, its members and the message that it has chosen to exploit the fears of its constituents, and you paint your own side as crusaders, and the message that it has chosen to exploit the fears of its own constituents becomes the sacred word.

Now you have little freedom to constructively criticize your own side, because that unavoidably strengthens the other side. Blasphemy to accuse your own side of incompetence, intentional corruption or malevolence.

It's the last remaining area we have where we can respectably hate another human being.

Democrats realized that being hawkish on security was the path to votes right around when Obama ran as "the guy who shot Osama bin Laden in the head."

I think that they figured that out way back in 2001!

> Great to see the Democrats out in front on this one!

This is one of the few issues where there is no "us vs. them" -- where right-wing libertarians and left-wing civil libertarians actually agree.

And if enough of us could learn to drop the snark, this issue might even inspire the most liberal Democrats and most conservative Republicans to work together for a change.

Did you watch Nancy Pelosi on the Daily show last week?

Cathartic.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-january-30-201...

Yes, but I don't understand your point...

Did you watch the rally to restore sanity? Did you watch Jon Stewart's appearance on the original Crossfire?

It's not one side or the other that's the problem, or even that all politicians are the problem. It's that we as a people cannot stop blaming each other long enough to get anything done. We need less snark, less blame, and more people working to build bridges. Dwelling on the partisanship doesn't change things.

You are making the assumption that the people involved actually want to work together to make the world a better place, rather than take what they can get from a situation.

When someone spends their life dissembling, having someone call them on it to their face on national television is a tiny step in the right direction.

The problem is that "We The People" want Snowden in jail, want the NSA to spy, so on and so forth.

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