Well put. The pernicious evil of this secret watch list business is easy to miss.
The pernicious evil of the government as a whole is easy to miss. The sound bite that will be provided is that "this law includes due process." The listener will translate that into "whatever." Well, the political prisoners sent to the gulags had due process too.
Trusting any government is the first step to having yourself or your posterity subjugated. I think it's too late. The government can easily overpower the people. The experiment of having the people in charge of their own government is over. It is claimed to exist, sure, same all over the world.