Call your senator

 

The United States Senate has a committee devoted to the oversight of the American intelligence community. It’s true they’re politicians, so we can’t expect much, but one thing is true of all senators: They hate getting calls from the public. It’s the worst part of the job, mostly because the majority of the calls they get are from crazy or paranoid people who have nothing better to do than complain. It’s very rare that anyone calls to give them props for a job well done—which is aggravated by the fact that so few of them actually do their job well.

Senators love flexing their fiduciary muscles. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence performs an annual review of the president’s proposed intelligence budget. If given the proper motivation, they will threaten the budgets of individual agencies.

If you’ve got a senator on the SSCI, give him or her a call. Let your lawmaker know you don’t like being spied on. Tell him that you’re not willing to sacrifice your right to privacy just on the off chance that one of your neighbors is a terrorist. Even if neither of your senators is on the committee, chances are they have some friends on it. Call them both, explain your objections, and urge them to scold the NSA. Try to avoid profanity or sounding crazy during the call. Being reasonable and rational is a great way to get through to senators. It’s a change from the calls they usually get.

Understand, however, that the NSA will probably ignore anything the Senate says to them. In fact, when the SSCI demands the agency’s representatives come by and explain themselves, they often don’t even show up. Like the rest of us, the NSA doesn’t have much respect for the Senate.