I went and had a long, hard look in the mirror when I found myself in suddenly agreement with Ron Paul, Matt Drudge and, wait for it ... Ann. F'ing. Coulter.

That's what makes it such a fascinating study in how politics works.

Here we have a new issue, which neither party is mad about, and which people of all walks of life are pretty pissed.

Parties keep people consistently voting for them by coming up with some kind of narrative around why their policies are best: "looking out for the little guy" or "getting government off your back"

It looks like this issue could fit into several narratives put forward by the parties over the past decade or two. The killer part is that parties must oppose each other: if party A is for something, party B must find a reason why it's fracked (insert long story about messaging and branding here). So that means that somehow these parties are going to have to choose a side _and_ develop a plausible narrative sometime in the very near future. Right now it's chaos. I can assure you that the spinmasters are currently hard at work.

I'm hearing one narrative already "nobody really cares about this." which sounds a lot like "nothing to see here folks, please move along" Not sure if that one is going to fly, though. I guess we'll find out.

You might not know anybody who is not spitting mad, but I have never seen anyone opt out when I have travelled through equipped airports.

As long as people are going through them like sheep, I am not sure the media storm will change much.

The accomplishment is amazing. I guess our country really still does care about liberty and -- imagine this -- the constitution.

Trouble is, are people going to do anything with their "spitting mad[ness]?" I hope they do.

I think they just have an irrational fear of radiation outside the doctor's office (whether or not that's valid here) - due to it being crammed down their throats for decades - and a massive aversion to being seen naked - also largely due to it being crammed down their throats for decades.

If they like liberty, why did/do they not get as spitting mad about the Patriot Act, the DMCA, and the ACTA? I'm guessing it's because their naked butts aren't staring them in the face after being irradiated.

Absolutely right.

It seems the media for good or ill drives the country and their responses. Hopefully the internet will eventually change that.

Upvoted you, but I would like to add that I'm spitting mad and not afraid of radiation or being naked. I think at least part of it is simply mass hysteria. It's very easy when other people are upset to get swept up into it.

Indeed! My blog post yesterday was "Across The Political Spectrum, A Rare Moment of Agreement — Thanks, TSA!"

http://iwilloptout.org/2010/11/17/across-the-political-spect...

I guess in a weird way the administration, through Janet Napolitano, is uniting the country.