The Politics of Surveillance Debating the Politics DA
The Politics of Surveillance Debating the Politics DA on the Domestic Surveillance Topic
Why learn the politics disad? Very few generic DAs on this topic Almost always applies to the aff Net benefit to many different types of CPs Big external impacts Rewards hard work – politics debates often come down to evidence quality It constantly changes – forces you to stay up to date with current events It’s not going away – even if you don’t read it, you’ll have to answer it
Types of Politics DAs Agenda politics Political capital – Obama or someone else Agenda crowd-out/Focus DAs Bipartisanship Horse-trading/olive branch DAs Rider DAs Others: Elections Diplomatic capital Court capital
Politics Uniqueness Best ev = tied to your internal link story, i. e. TPA is going to pass now because Obama is exerting his influence on members of Congress Quality over quantity – is this evidence good enough to win me the round? Quality is more important than recency – within reason Comparing uniqueness with dates – why does it matter? Research warrants, not claims Things to look for Citing insiders/experts Vote counts Predictive evidence Momentum Answers to common warrants in aff uniqueness cards
Link Debating Read as specific of links as possible Crucial for beating link uniqueness arguments Makes it easier to beat link turns Think about how your link interacts with your CP Read tricky new link arguments in the block Explain why their link turns don’t apply to their scenario i. e. aff says tech lobby loves the aff, tech lobby key to the agenda; you should explain why the tech lobby doesn’t matter for your DA
Internal Links Most important and most difficult to find part of a DA Typically the weakest area of the DA Specific PC is/isn’t key to this bill Something else is more important Generic Is PC theory true? How does it affect votes? Uniqueness overwhelms the link – it’s an indict of the internal link, not a uniqueness arg
Thumpers and Internal Link Uniqueness Fights are coming/inevitable on other issues, proves the link will be triggered no matter what A few levels of answers: Top of the docket cards Is Obama involved? Proves the brink Our authors assume those fights Specific cards to answer them as you hear them PC high/low Ev indicts Our ev assumes this – Obama has enough PC to pass our bill Cut a few cards on it
Impact Debating Read an external impact as early as possible Try not to read new, impact-turnable impacts in the block Best aff impact turn strategy is to impact turn the BILL not the TERMINAL IMPACT, eg. TPA bad instead of trade bad
2 AC Variety Uniqueness args Internal link take-outs Link uniqueness args Thumpers Multiple different link turns Theory args Impact defense Winners win Set up a 1 AR strategy Sandbagging good uniqueness cards for the 1 AR Impact turning? Consider the CP
Politics Theory Know your judge Aff Args Bottom of the docket Fiat solves the link DA Not Intrinsic/Not an opportunity cost Vote no Neg responses Interpretation of the judge Why is the politics DA valuable? Have blocks that are short and to the point Don’t repeat the same answers to multiple args
Researching Politics Google news, lexisnexis, factiva (the latter two I usually primarily use to get around paywalls or to find a particular news source not otherwise available) Start about a week in advance and keep up with it daily Read a lot of articles – your search terms won’t always come up with the best articles Google alerts and RSS readers are your friends Keep up with what DAs other people are reading HS and college wiki pages Scouting at tournaments Friends (if you have them…) Impact research – think tanks, congressional testimony Link and internal link uniqueness files Know everything there is to know about your DA – it’ll make research and explaining warrants of your evidence easier
Surveillance Topic Link Debates
Core Controversy Should we reduce surveillance? If so, what scope of reduction is politically acceptable? VERY strong political opinions on both sides – makes fights bigger, more controversial = bigger risk of a link USA Freedom Act - Final version was a compromise between hawks and privacy advocates Debate took TONS of floor time, delayed action on other legislation USA Freedom Act passage showed the level of horse-trading and concessions that had to be made to pass a small amount of surveillance reform
Obama on Surveillance Came into office skeptical of surveillance systems Most of his presidency, Obama has strongly supported surveillance programs – took a pretty hard line in support of antiterrorism policies The Obama administration has actively worked to water down/reduce the scope of any limitations on government surveillance This means that many affs on the topic would result in a major fight between Congress and the Obama administration Any major changes to surveillance policy would be very difficult/controversial to get passed
“Obama wouldn’t push the plan” This will be a reasonably common argument given that Obama has shown little interest in reforming or reducing surveillance structures Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU: “Obama has been presented with this choice: Are you going to defend these programs or are you going to change them? Thus far, we haven’t seen a lot of evidence that the president is willing to spend political capital changing those programs. ” As a result, many link arguments might deal with the fight between Congressional privacy supporters and the Obama administration rather than a particular policy getting tied to Obama
Congressional Breakdown on Domestic Surveillance https: //standagainstspying. org/scorecard/ Created/organized by a variety of privacy groups including the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Roughly a year old so it’s not 100% accurate but reflects the general trends in Congress (and includes grades for some people who aren’t in Congress anymore/doesn’t include grades for newer Congresspersons Grades are determined by sponsorship of and votes for legislation to curtail government surveillance powers
A Grades 143 Democrats + 1 ind. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) – rated by the National Journal one of the most liberal members of the House Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 105 Republicans Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) – rated by the National Journal one of the most conservative members of the House Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
F Grades 84 Republicans 31 Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) Rep. Kevin Mc. Carthy (R-CA)
GOP: Hawks vs. Libertarians Huge split in the Republican party over surveillance Traditional mainstream GOP (hawks) vs. Tea Party and Libertarian Wing of the Party (doves) Leadership vs. rising stars (Mitch Mc. Connell v. Rand Paul) Bush-era neoconservatives vs. new wave libertarians Knowing those distinctions about your DA will make your link debating more effective GOP leadership needs Tea Party wing to pass major legislation
Dems: Just as Divided Huge divide between hawks and doves on domestic surveillance issues Democratic establishment and leadership has been leery of supporting major changes to domestic surveillance because of a lack of support from the Obama administration Increasing divide between Dems in Congress and the White House Internal fights over whether new policies curtailing domestic surveillance go far enough
Perception Links Soft on terrorism – no one wants to be perceived that way for electoral purposes = people are more willing to go along with programs they don’t support and more backlash against the plan Soft on crime Lack of support for defense 2016 election – if the aff might get dragged into the 2016 election debates, it’s more controversial
Relevant People Republicans Democrats Mitch Mc. Connell (R-KY) – Senate majority leader – very strongly supports domestic surveillance programs Rand Paul (R-KY) – Senator/GOP presidential candidate – libertarian, filibustered the extension of data collection programs Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) – Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) – Author of the Patriot Act and the House version of the USA Freedom Act Patrick Leahy (D-VT) – Introduced original Senate version of USA Freedom Act, strong opponent of domestic surveillance policies Ron Wyden (D-OR) – Strong privacy advocate/opponent of domestic surveillance Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) – Huge supporter of the NSA and surveillance measures
Relevant Lobbies/Groups Privacy groups (Electronic Frontier Foundation, etc. ) Intelligence agencies Defense industry Tech industry Law enforcement groups
Link Uniqueness and the USA Freedom Act Affirmative teams will typically forward a link uniqueness argument on politics related to the recent passage of the USA Freedom Act and other domestic surveillance reforms Lots of good neg evidence on this question: Mostly changed nothing about the breadth of surveillance programs and only created symbolic changes New post-USA Freedom Act changes to surveillance programs would upset a delicate balance in Congress
Other DAs
2016 Primary DA Very good evidence that domestic surveillance will be a key issue in the 2016 Primaries Nate Silver: “Debates on domestic surveillance could serve as proxy battles for these intraparty factions. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, perhaps along with other Republican candidates, could use his opposition to surveillance programs to help consolidate the support of libertarian and Tea Party voters, at the risk of alienating national security conservatives. Democratic candidates who criticize the Patriot Act or the N. S. A. ’s actions will be finding fault with policies that Mr. Obama has defended. . ” “. . . surveillance policy could become a major issue in the 2016 primaries, as elites in each party defend themselves against rank-andfile voters who are critical of their judgment. ”
Court Capital DA Uniqueness – the court is going to rule in a particular way in an upcoming case on their docket Some specific link arguments: Generic controversial/activist rulings Many links deal with Anthony Kennedy – moderate/centrist Making particular types of rulings hurts institutional capital Important aff answers Are court rulings ideological or political? Judicial capital isn’t real Thumpers Winners win type arguments
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