Profiling is in and Political Correctness is out the window! Someone should tell these gutless wonders to quit whining and do something useful instead of acting like idiots afraid of their shadows. Immigrant rights activists are on very shaky ground with their fears; my advice to them - find a different line of work!
It did *not* go back to normal. The war was a bonanza for increasing the power of the state, both federal and local. The witholding of income tax from your check is a "temporary wartime measure". The telephone tax is another "temporary wartime measure". Vast expansiion of power for the FBI.. a "temporary wartime measure". The vast apparatus of the CIA, started in WWII , expanded enourmously after the war. Hugh land grabs for the federal governement, especially out west.."Temporary wartime mearsures". Some things the American people just would not stand, like wage and price controls and rationing. The government tried to keep them going, but bowed to the public demands when the public voted many out of office. Probably the most harm was done with the vast increase in government control over the media, which helped solidify the three television networks shortly after the war.
We have never recovered from the loss of freedoms and increase in government power during World War II. A lot of it may have been the continuing cold war with its hot spots in Korea, Hungary, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. Now it looked like some of those "temporary wartime measures" are under pressure, and the new war has come up.
Didn't Benjamin Franklin say "Those who give up essential liberted for temporary security will son have neither." or something close to that effect.