"I am absolutely certain that there are enough politicians ready to mobilize to roll back NSA surveillance programs if they really think the programs are excess

"I am absolutely certain that there are enough politicians ready to mobilize to roll back NSA surveillance programs if they really think the programs are excessive in their scope." This seems a very paternalistic view of politics that assumes politicians inherently know better than the public and that the people here are overblowing the dangers of NSA surveillance. I can imagine an alternate universe where there was no one like Snowden to make public the breadth of surveillance and the system was allowed to run unchecked. Isn't it a worrying sign that the system of checks and balances required a whistleblower? Before that, the government was writing laws that were eroding privacy without the knowledge and input of the public. That's not how things are meant to work in a democracy.