It makes enormous sense.  That it started with airports was obvious, as planes became missiles in the hands of terrorists.  But planes were also enclosed vessels where a group of people were trapped, making them a perfect target in themselves. 

We have to protect ourselves from these terrorists, because everything changed after 9/11.  This rationale is right up there with do it for the children.  It resonates.  It plays in Peoria.  It may not be sufficient for the handful of people on the internet who read blawgs by criminal defense lawyers, libertarians or the Tin Foil Hat Society, but it remains the mantra of many regular folk who would prefer not to be an uninvited guest to someone else’s martyrdom party.

And the TSA knows it.  Via Mother Jones :

Think you could avoid the TSA’s body scanners and pat-downs by taking Amtrak? Think again. Even your daily commute isn’t safe from TSA screenings. And because the TSA is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, you may have your immigration status examined along with your “junk“.

As part of the TSA’s request for FY 2012 funding, TSA Administrator John Pistole told Congress last week that the TSA conducts 8,000 unannounced security screenings every year. These screenings, conducted with local law enforcement agencies as well as immigration, can be as simple as checking out cargo at a busy seaport. But more and more, they seem to involve giving airport-style pat-downs and screenings of unsuspecting passengers at bus terminals, ferries, and even subways.

Planes, trains and automobiles.

According to at least one news report out of Brownsville, Texas, TSA/VIPR has already conducted unannounced inspections of private passenger cars and trucks.

Once the barrier is broken and we step onto the slippery slope, the conceptual ledge is hard to find.  The next, and fairly obvious step, is the right authority to frisk people walking down the street.  We’ve long had frisks conducted at the entries to sporting arenas, another place where a large mass of people congregate and can be blown to bits by a suicide bomber.  Why would walking into a mall, or a store, or movie theater be less of a risk.  And you certainly don’t want to be blown up watching the final Harry Potter movies, do you?

Even if we return to the original rationale for airport screenings, that planes can be used a missiles, we find little comfort.  Cars can also be used as a delivery system.  Car bombings have long been a staple of attacks in the mideast.  So too are suicide bombers, wrapping themselves in explosives to deliver death.  There’s really no end to the possibilities.

Had the government decided to seize the authority to frisk grandma for walking down the street a decade ago, Americans wouldn’t have taken it too well.  Perhaps they would embrace it as feelings were raw, but it would have  touched too many people who knew that they posed no threat.  There was a significant potential for backlash, ruining a good thing by rushing it through before we were ready.

But ten years have gone by, and the government has seen Americans accept their intrusions.  We may not like it, but we haven’t refused it in sufficient numbers, or rejected it as a people.  We’ve become resigned to the fact that hands grope us, machines see through our clothing and the few who gripe are given “special treatment.”

My pal  Mark Bennett refuses to travel by plane anymore.  But what will he do when he can no longer drive his Porsche, or even walk down the street holding his children’s hands, without being subject to a pat down on demand?  Mark saw it coming.

In the past, I’ve advocated a variation on Nancy Reagan’s message, “just say no.”  Sure, it’s a risky proposition, since each of us alone, saying no, becomes an enemy of the state and an annoyance to the people behind us on line who just want to get on the plane and go to DisneyLand.  For many, whatever mischief happens at the hands of the TSA is well deserved.  You could just do what they ask and be done with it.  True, acquiescence is the easier route.  It always is, especially when facing people who have been given the authority to make your life miserable and, well, enjoy doing so.

But the path of least resistance leads to the road to perdition.

I’m no anarchist.  I’m hardly militant and definitely not a violent person.  The answer isn’t revolution, even though some who pay a great deal of attention to such matters grow to believe that there’s no other way.  Small exercises of conscience by regular people, grandmas and parents of young children, men of good standing in the community, simply informing the nice people in uniform that they do not believe they want to be touched without cause, and prepared to quietly and peacefully accept some consequences for their choices, will make a point. 

As Pastor Martin Niemöller  eloquently reminded us, we will all eventually be touched if we turn away and pretend this isn’t our problem.  At least not this time.  They’ll catch up with us, and those who argue that we should just go along with the government and not make waves may feel differently when it’s their turn to be stopped in the street for a quick grope.

First it was the airports.  Today, it’s cars in Brownsville, Texas.  See any trend?