Neocons and the TSA

The TSA has been shown to be one of those evil metastasizing bureaucracies that are as abusive as they are ineffective in carrying out their supposed duties. Stories of abuse of airline passengers, terrorizing little children, committing theft, and ogling people forced to go through porn scanners have demonstrated without a doubt that the “well-trained federal workers” (as they have been called by the New York Times) are the very people who should not be permitted to touch or give orders to anyone.

While the Democratic Party Left (and every other Democrat I know) has enthusiastically supported the TSA and all of its abuses (when confronted with obvious TSA atrocities, TSA director John Pistole has promised “more training,” the Progressive mantra and solution to everything), Republicans have been just as bad. The neoconservative Wall Street Journal is no exception, and one of its editors, James Taranto (emphasis on “rant”) assures readers that whatever treatment the TSA recently gave Henry Kissinger, it was OK because the TSA is good. Not surprisingly, “Rant-o” the neocon (emphasis on “con”) goes off on TSA critics:

TSA horror stories have been a media commonplace since not long after 9/11. This story makes us suspect the whole genre is far more myth than reality. Before the body scanners were in common use, we received quite a few pat-downs as a result of our prosthetic hip, which sets off metal detectors. It’s not an experience we would seek out, but it is hardly the violation that some hysterics make it out to be.

Often when there is a conflict, even the news stories make it clear that the problem is the passenger’s acting like a drama queen rather than the TSA agents’ being officious or unprofessional. One example, reported by ABC News, involved Kentucky’s Sen. Rand Paul, who was flying from Nashville, Tenn., to Washington:

The TSA version of events is that Paul triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and refused to complete the screening process (pat-down) in order to resolve the issue. Paul was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement.

“Rant-o” smugly continues:

Through a staffer’s tweet, Paul claimed he was being “detained,” which the TSA denied. “The Paul spokesman said his office called TSA administrator John Pistole about the incident this morning.”

One imagines that someone as prominent as Henry Kissinger could likewise have gotten the TSA administrator on the phone to complain, had he been so inclined. It speaks well of Kissinger that he wasn’t.

If anything, “Rant-o” is pretty typical of both mainstream Republicans and Democrats. The government is here to help you, and if you are abused, it is your own fault because the government never is wrong and by definition, government never can abuse anyone. So, if you complain, either you are a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer.

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5:28 am on May 17, 2012