Yes, I was upset and disappointed. Even angry! But surprised?
NO WAY!!
There are several reason why we should not be surprised.
First and foremost, the views on democracy, at best, change slowly. I think it was meant to be that way. And after three/four or five decades (depending of a your pov) of a conservative mindset, what did we expect?
more because I am curious as to why some are seemingly shocked by this vote
Since the latter half of the 20th century we have been seeing the "surges" of conservatism on the public stage. From the McCarthy era to now, with only a few breaks in between, conservatism has taken hold with many. And I really have to admit, sadly, that the Reagan administration really solidified things. I remember some of my friends and I being so stunned at how many regular people, colleagues, relatives, that we cared about, loved Reagan and refused to look at the reality of his administration.
Anyway, I believe that the so called "center" or centrist ideology has been moved so far to the right, that anytime someone calls themselves a moderate or a centrist, I see them as a republican, a right leaning person who simply is not all caught up in the crazed rapture of the religious right. That alone makes them seem reasonable to some.
For pete's sakes, Jim Webb worked for the Reagan administration. Ergo, he was way to the right of me. But his competition of George Allen, a Confederate flag waving, racist. Next to Allen, it would not be hard to look "progressive".
But, thanks to Reagan, to the Bushes and, in some measure the Clintons, any true progressive is painted as a radical lefty.
Because the corporate owners of conglomerations, always to the right of Attila the Hun, have so much more influence than they did 30 years ago, it is harder now to wake up the American populace.
And people like us, the ones who pay attention, are sadly in the minority. I would wager anyone, if you asked 10 to 20 friends and acquaintances this morning, about their feelings on the vote for the FISA bill being extended, the overwhelming majority would either not know what you were talking about, or would not particularly care. Part of what we have to do is wake up the neighbors, the friends, the relatives.
The ultra rich want to keep the status quo and things like the FISA bill will never affect them any more than issues like health care or education. They have the money and the power to buy whatever they need, live wherever they feel safe, as long as they keep people in power (like Bush) that will keep things feeding them money and it does not bother them at all that they are obnoxiously wealthy while others starve. In my experience, there are very few Warren Buffets around.
In the 1950's and 1960's and early 70's, things like war brought out everyone, made for activists because the majority of families were impacted by war. The adults of that time had come of age during the times of FDR and they trusted government. That is why it took a lot of brave people to stand up to the McCarthy's of the world. Financially, the generation that had grown up in the depression, gone to war, were overall doing well. Those were the boomers' parents.
And we boomers were overindulged in many ways but many of us were blessed with parents that taught us to think for ourselves. Many of us became the hippies, the antiwar people, the civil rights protestors. But less you forget, even back then, we were hated by many of our peers, hated by the frat boy George W's (who both despised us but wanted to participate in the "drugs, sex and rock &roll" part but not the rest of it),despised by the Rove types who saw us as beneath them. Even back then I think the Rove types were planning their revenge. I have never actually looked up the numbers, but I suspect there was more of the them (the Rove types) than there were of us (the activist types).
In the end, while I am angry about the vote, I am not surprised. And I am not ready to quit. For those of us who have lived through Vietnam, through Kent State, through the assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK, through the election of Regan and how his lies have been spun and spun and spun, this is not enough to make us give up. This is not a battle we can ever give up. We are just in the beginning of moving the center BACK TO THE ACTUAL CENTER. We have a lot of work to do. Giving up will not get it done.