The Towers of Babble and the Passage of the USA Patriot Act
Author:
- Eric S. Jenkins (University of Georgia)
Babble, a plurality of publics and the clamor of their publicity, remains a perennial motif in public sphere scholarship. Scholars frequently ponder the conditions necessary to overcome babble. One instance of unity amidst the babble was the passage of the USA Patriot Act. I argue that the presence of the 9/11 Witness dominated the Congressional deliberation, encouraging a frame of emergency time that deflected the opponents' calls for more time to deliberate.