I would guess that many, perhaps most, perhaps near all, liberals are shuffling aside with merely moralistic g runts the revelations re NSA chicanery, the half-formed thought being something like, "It will only _really_ hurt those who break the law, & I'm law-abiding.
But there are more laws to break than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio, and a compilation of the many violations of unenforced laws that may well rest in the FBI archives will offer a convenient hook upon which to hang repression of even lawful protest. Jennifer and friends pass out leaflets at the local High School. Perfectly legal. But the FBI/NSA search of their archives reveals that Jennifer did unknowingly violate such & such a regulation a couple years before. Jenifer gets arrested when no judge is immediately available, & she spends a day or two in local custody -- where bad things can happen to her. Even if she is then released with no charges, she and her friends may be cautious thereafter in calling attention to themselves.
As I've pointed out before, since the 1960s, & beginning with the War on Drugs, a rather powerful repressive apparatus has been built up in the U.S., the Patriot Act & NSA spying being merely a sort of topping off of that apparatus. And it will be hard to resist. It is extremely difficult to generate high passion over what _might be_ (or even what is certain to be) next year. And left liberals are hardened in their ability to dream pleasant dreams.
Misery does not necessarily provoke resistance -- as seems to be the motive behind the endless piling up of sad stories in liberal media and left e-lists, blogs, & Facebook. But ruling elites may, like many leftists, think so. And since those elites _do_ know that Austerity (if they have their way) is here to stay, they may be preparing for such resistance. And they may feel (and they may be right) that even a small amount of visible resistance might encourage more. Hence my speculation that the NSA archives can be used to dampen quite trivial political activity.
Not speculative -- I would call this hard knowledge: The DP is never going to come to the rescue. It is The Problem, not a potential "solution." Carrol