Glenn Greenwald: Why People Cave in to Extremist Ideas.

Remember when, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, the Patriot Act was controversial, held up as the symbolic face of Bush-Cheney radicalism, and widely lamented as a threat to core American liberties and restraints on federal surveillance and detention powers? Yet now, the Patriot Act is quietly renewed every four years by overwhelming majorities in both parties, despite substantial evidence of serious abuse, and almost nobody is bothered by it any longer. That's how extremist powers become normalized: They just become such a fixture in our political culture that we are trained to take them for granted, to view the warped as normal. Here are several examples from the last couple of days illustrating that same dynamic. None seems overwhelmingly significant on its own, but that's the point: After Dick Cheney criticized John McCain this weekend for having chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate, this was McCain's retort: "Look, I respect the vice president. He and I had strong disagreements as to whether we should torture people or not. I don't think we should have. I realize insincere expressions of respect are rote ritualism among American elites, but still, McCain's statement amounts to this: Dick Cheney authorized torture and I respect him. How can that be an acceptable sentiment to express? Of course, it's even more notable that political officials whom everyone knows authorized torture are walking around free, respected and prosperous, completely shielded from all criminal accountability. "Torture"has been permanently transformed from an unspeakable taboo into a garden variety political controversy, where it shall long remain.