Which is more important? You, or the state?
You can be assassinated without due process. Wiretapped without warrant. Tortured in secret without the right to seek justice. Imprisoned for whistleblowing.
All in the name of National Security. What does that even mean? It doesn't mean people have the right to feel secure in their persons and homes.
If National Security meant the physical safety of our citizens, we'd be halting the illicit movement of weapons or scaling back over-armed anti-drug SWAT forces. We'd be investing hundreds of billions in upgrading dangerously old infrastructure. We'd be closing down investment banks that help to kick people out of their homes. Education spending would be on the rise. All vastly cheaper than launching drones, imprisoning non-persons, and further supporting our bloated police state.
There would be prosecutions of those people who abducted human beings incorrectly accused of "war crimes". We would be given back our right to have private telephone conversations.
So if we aren't being protected from harm to our persons, what are we being protected from by these efforts which require that Americans give up their right to live?
I suppose these actions offer theoretical protection from the fear of physical insecurity. However, the same people people who implement these actions, which theoretically increase your feeling of security, also engage in a constant fear-mongering effort to convince you that they must have these secret powers if we're going to survive.
Since neither our actual physical safety nor our 'sense' of security have been improved, we are still left unable to answer who really gains from handing your 'right' to exist over to an unaccountable executive branch.
Whoever gains, it is clear that you are less important than the State (and whoever it chooses to represent). Not because a duly constituted trial came to the conclusion or because a sworn federal judge reviewed the evidence and deemed you unworthy. It has already been decided. No due process necessary. The State comes before you.