- In a hierarchy, each person does what their superior in the structure tells them. They get 'authorized.'
- Authorizing is done by an Authority.
- An authority is a person.
- A person at the top of a hierarchy is appointed by politicians, and chiefly the President.
- In our system presidents can be people like Nixon, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and it could even be worse.
- Presidents pick people with purposes like their own to be 'The Authority.'
- Therefore...
Being protected, and watched, by such people is not something that leaves one feeling secure. One could comfort oneself with the thought 'well, they wouldn't really do anything bad,' but it wouldn't be prudent.
So, the mother of all questions in regard to spying <or your favorite word for it here>, is how do you have this kind of business and not have it turn into a sword over our heads in the form of whatever dreck might become President one day?
Whether you think it is now so, or now not so, doesn't matter. This is about that sword over our heads. Can a system be built which takes the sword away? And what would it require? Or would 'reform' require something very different than we have now?