The American people should be consulted in some formal way. For example, the congress could bring up a law to specifically reinforce the concept that we are innocent until proven guilty and that therefore no electronic communication can be collected, scanned, or analyzed until after the submission of a valid warrant.
The congress should make it clear to the people that this could allow some terrorists to successfully communicate with each other to conduct a terrorist attack.
The people can then tell their congressmen which way they would prefer they vote.
We will then know if we are a nation of quivering sheep who are OK living in a police state, or if we are still a nation of men and women who are willing to accept the occasional pitfalls of a free and open society.
I vote for tolerating a few terrorist attacks over a tolerating a totalitarian government.
Terrorists at their worst can do far less damage than even an average totalitarian government.
How is allowing the government the power to spy on those who might oppose communism going to in any way reduce the likelihood of a terrorist attack? If anything, it would more likely increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack by keeping out of power those who would actually take action against terrorism.