Asked during a Reddit Q & A how citizens could ensure that surveillance is front-and-center in next year's elections, Greenwald responded that the key obstacle to a genuine debate on such issues is "bipartisan consensus."

"When the leadership of both parties join together – as they so often do, despite the myths to the contrary – those issues disappear from mainstream public debate," Greenwald wrote, noting that President Obama, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and House Speaker John Boehner joined forces to block legislation killing the NSA's metadata program after whistleblower Edward Snowden laid bare the scale of the agency's surveillance operations.