All this heat. It's understandable, because humans tend to think only in the here and now. But this whole issue isn't really about Snowden. Or President Obama and whether or not the current Congress and courts have appropriate oversight. Or even, and pardon the image, potential President Rick Perry. It's about the future.
Do we, as a people, not as various shades of red and blue and purple, but as a thinking, rational, democratic people, really want to grant our government the right to gather and store this kind of data on people who have been charged with no crime, in perpetuity? Do you truly believe there is no significant risk in having your children, your grandchildren, and all of your descendants forever more being monitored in this way? Do we believe there are no other methods of monitoring and enforcement that could be as effective?
How can we know who will hold the reins of government twenty years from now? Or forty? Or a hundred?
That is the proper timescale for this argument.
Prudence alone dictates that we give this issue serious and thoughtful deliberation, considering both the current and future ramifications of such a policy. Getting caught up in the people involved today ignores the real issue: Do we want our government to track the communications and activities of innocent people, forever, knowing that we have zero knowledge of and control over the people our children elect? Or do we want to take a stand now and say: There are other ways of doing what you are trying to do. Find them and use them, because this one is too risky to allow in perpetuity.