What's a practical next step we can actually do to make this happen?
I feel like we see a lot of blog posts about this, but are there any tangible action steps people can do beyond blogging, commenting and signing petitions?
This is an excellent question. At the end of the day, the TSA exists as it does because the population is fearful of dying in an airplane explosion (even though these tactics don't much help prevent that), and there's no political cover whatsoever for a politician that endorses scaling back security theater. So whatever the practical next step is, it needs to start by solving that problem. We need a public declaration by the population that we're willing to take the risk and won't punish politicians for changing the TSA.
Find out who is running for Congress in your district. Include any viable candidates for both major parties (if any). Talk to them about their views, let them know that disbanding the TSA is a major issue for you, and that you'll support any candidate who takes a stand on this, and oppose any who don't.
If you find a viable major party candidate[1] who will come out in favor of disbanding the TSA, then follow through and support him. This will require money or time (or ideally, both).
If you cannot find any viable major party candidates, consider running yourself. Every two years new people get into the House because of incumbents ignoring the concerns of their constituents.
Either way, once you've done all you can in your district to try and get a congress-critter elected who will publicly back repeal of the TSA, the next step is to try and help on a national level. This takes money.
Talk to non-profit civil rights groups to see if they will advocate for repeal of the TSA. Don't limit yourself to one side of the political aisle! Talk to the ACLU, talk to CAP, talk to Heartland, talk to Cato, talk to anyone you can find who will listen who is or might be even tangentially interested in TSA repeal. Make sure to mention that you will donate large amounts of money. If you can't find anyone, start your own.
Once you've found (or founded) a national think tank or pressure group, you now need to follow through. Donating time helps, but money helps a lot more. Hopefully you can scrape together $10k or more for this. If you can't, start talking to your friends. Don't just blog about how the TSA is terrible, blog about how you're trying to get together $50k or $200k to bring about real change. Nobody cares about people commenting about how outraged they are on a blog; they care about money.
Everyone loves to talk about how terrible it is that money is important in American politics, and maybe it IS terrible. But the great thing about money is that it's blind. It doesn't matter who you know or what school you went to or who your father was[2]. If you can scrape together 5-6 figures to throw at a political issue you can have a real impact on almost any issue in the US[3].
In other words, the tangible actions you can take are, well, ANY tangible actions. Talk to sympathetic politicians and interest groups. If you can't find sympathetic politicians and interest groups, start your own. Either way, acquire and spend money on this. Blogging, commenting, and signing petitions are almost the definition of non-tangible actions in the current political system.
[1]: Fringe candidates for the major parties, or minor party candidates, do not - in the US system - have a major impact on policy. You may decry this fact, but it's the way it is. Pick your battles. Either lobby for TSA repeal OR a shift to proportional representation.
[2]: I've lived in a few countries. My experience is that money matters a lot more in US politics, but that doesn't make the US less fair or more corrupt. Americans often seem to think that if they could get money out of the system, everything would work better. I wish I thought it was that easy.
[3]: Again, you may decry this fact, but it's the way it is. Pick your battles. Either lobby for TSA repeal OR meaningful campaign finance reform.
Don't you know that? Terrorists did a great job in 2001! Since then, every one in United States are in terror, especially the US government. They did everything they believed to fight it, spend every penny they have, and torture every citizen of them whenever they are flying. If I were the terrorist I would be much glad: I don't need to do anything anymore but the whole US is in terror, forever!
That children are now being conditioned to allow strangers to shove hands down their pants, that young women are subjected to genital inspections before being allowed to pursue their careers, that innocent people are adopting poses of humiliation and surrender in response to barked commands.
I'm not a big fan of the TSA, but whoever wrote this is living in a different version of the U.S. than I am. Statements like these are very dangerous because they sensationalize the topic to a point where most people will easily dismiss the author. This gives the opposing side exactly the ammunition they need - they can now dismiss the author, and, unfortunately, all TSA opponents by association.
The TSA might be a waste of resources and a step in the direction of a slippery slope of loss of freedom, but that's all it is. Wrapping it in some sort of unskillful pedophilia scare tactic doesn't do anyone any good.
In SFO, I haven't seen any of this and security seems pretty much unchanged, but recently going through San Diego was a completely different experience. There they were searching passengers and using full body scanners on children. I overheard a mom telling her kids, "just do what they tell you" waiting in line to be searched, and being a dad, was immediately sick to my stomach thinking of what these kids were learning. If you don't have children you have no idea that simple statements like that can become rules in a child's brain; rules that are likely to get applied out of context.
Just curious, how would you answer a 3-6 year old child as to why it is ok for a uniformed stranger to be touching them?
I agree to the extent that it's a misrepresentation of what is actually going on. It is not, however, a misrepresentation of what the regulations and laws regarding the TSA allow. The fact that they're not doing it, even though it's well within their powers, is simply a political calculation not an actual check on the power.
Thanks for the link. I now understand what prompted you to write what you did. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I now understand your view. I won't comment further, as I think our worlds are too divergent to change either of our though processes via online discussion.
I feel like we see a lot of blog posts about this, but are there any tangible action steps people can do beyond blogging, commenting and signing petitions?