I think democratic states who set themselves up as models of free societies have a higher responsibilty to live up to these values. The fact that fascist or au

I think democratic states who set themselves up as models of free societies have a higher responsibilty to live up to these values. The fact that fascist or authoritarian states passed laws to support their excess does not change our perception of them or make anything 'legal'. Authoritarianism couched in legalese is still authoritarianism. We are now 10 years into using the legal system to set extremely dangerous precedents and are guilty of insidiously corrupting and trivializing the democratic movement set up after the second world war. Our evangelism of free and democratic values will now lack authenticity and will inevitably be perceived as self serving posturing and hyprocrisy. This loss of the moral high ground is a high price to pay for some generational politicians and NSA bureaucrats tinpot tendencies. The system is not working.