I agree.
I keep trying to make the point that the Patriot Act (as it was intended) was not the evil boggart it is now.
It was intended to break down the Gorelick Wall that kept the intel agencies from sharing data and spreading the word.
But as with all heavy weapons like this, if wielded by honorable men, it’s a tool for good. It has been usurped by evil men, and now becomes a cudgel for evil.
You make the same argument that GW’s uncle made to me last week. When I told him that there were plenty of us who knew that, under the hands of a democrat president and an out of control bureaucracy, the laws would be used against American citizens. The look on his face said they either didn’t think of that or they don’t care. It was all about building a gov’t bureaucracy that will “watch over” is and keep us under their thumb.