The General Welfare of the People means that the government does for the individual what the individual cannot do for himself (gender-neutral usage), i.e., keeping a Navy, building an ABM shield, etc. Setting up check-points (whether on the highway or the airports) and asking retailers to rat on their customers smells of Nazi (national socialism) Germany and communist Cuba.
One of the things most people forget is that the Founding Fathers set up our republic as LIMITED government. The people were freer when they governed themselves - according to the Holy Scriptures. (Thomas Jefferson, when Supervisor of Education for the District of Columbia, said that there were 2 books every schoolchild should have - a bible and a hymnal.)
You are right this isn't Kentucky where one's nearest neighbor is now only 10 yds away instead of 100 miles (200 years ago), ditto for Calif. If we, as Americans, were as religious as we were 200 years ago, there wouldn't be any need for intrusive laws that are being foisted upon us in the name of "security" and "safety." 200 years ago, the literacy rate in the U.S. was about 90%. Today, the literacy rate is just about the lowest in the industrialized world. Those who can read, seem to limit their reading to just the headlines of the morning paper or the captions that run along the bottom of the TV screen. They (not including you) don't usually show up at FR.
You have presented some excellent points.
However, I would submit that protecting the country from terrorists is one of the things the individual cannot do for himself.
Again, I think we agree on the objective....I think where people disagree is on the "reasonableness" of the provisions of the Patriot Act for intrusion in people's private lives. I think the question in most people's minds is "Is there sufficient ie reasonable justification for this level of intrusion?" I think most people would agree there are some instances where it is reasonable to limit the absolute right of privacy. Where reasonable people disagree is on what those instances are. That is why we are having this discussion on whether or not the Patriot Act will pass a constitutional challenge.