The Politics of SurveillanceDebating the Politics DA on the Domestic

Surveillance Topic

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

Why learn the politics disad?

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

Types of Politics DAs

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

Politics Uniqueness

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

Link Debating

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

Internal Links

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

Thumpers and Internal Link Uniqueness

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

Impact Debating

Variety Uniqueness args Internal link take-outs Link uniqueness args Thumpers Multiple different link turns Theory args Impact defense Winners win

Set up a 1AR strategy Sandbagging good uniqueness cards for the 1AR

Impact turning? Consider the CP

2AC

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

Politics Theory

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

Researching Politics

Surveillance Topic Link Debates

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

Core Controversy

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 anti-terrorism 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 on Surveillance

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

“Obama wouldn’t push the plan”

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

Congressional Breakdown on Domestic Surveillance

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

31 Democrats

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) Rep. Tammy Duckworth

(D-IL) Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)

84 Republicans

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-

CA)

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 McConnell 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

GOP: Hawks vs. Libertarians

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

Dems: Just as Divided

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

Perception Links

Relevant People

Republicans Mitch McConnell (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

Democrats 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

Privacy groups (Electronic Frontier Foundation, etc.)

Intelligence agencies Defense industry Tech industry Law enforcement groups

Relevant Lobbies/Groups

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

Link Uniqueness and the USA Freedom Act

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-and-file voters who are critical of their judgment.”

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

Court Capital DA