Would it work if people tried? I bet it would. Will people try? No, because they don't care about this issue.
The refrain of democracy being broken in America is getting old. It's not broken--you just don't like that the majority has a long list of issues it cares more about than privacy. We are getting the things people care about: legalized gay marriage, continued access to abortion, welfare spending, social services for the elderly. We're fighting the good fight on issues that aren't quite there yet: universal healthcare, etc. Democracy is alive and kicking in America.
You're describing wedge issues that politicians use to get people to fight red vs blue. Anyone that has ever brought up the subject of privacy and domestic spying has been lambasted as a conspiracy nut.
They are wedge issues because people care. You don't see teenagers standing on the sidewalks getting people to sign petitions to address domestic spying after all.
No, they are wedge issues because politicians are able to divide voters through manipulation, dogma and money from lobbying power. Once a politician tells voters (or teenagers) that domestic spying is an 'issue' then they'll care. That's how the game works.
Twenty years ago gay marriage was a radioactive issue. I know because I was an intern in a Democratic Senator's office back then, and when the Defense of Marriage Act came up I got to watch my boss and a bunch of other normally progressive people rush to vote for it to avoid any possibility of being painted as pro-gay. It was a deeply depressing spectacle.
Now gay marriage is not only thinkable, it's on the verge of becoming the new normal.
Why? How did that happen?
It happened because gay people organized. They spent two decades doing the hard work required to change peoples' minds. And now that work is paying off.
A democracy is not an immovable object. Moving it is hard, but it can be done. You just have to be willing to put your back into it.
I feel there is a huge difference between political organization around issues of civil rights, and organizing against the military-intelligence-industrial complex.
I've studied the history of civil rights considerably. This issue strikes me as a far different beast.
You really think that actually has any significant probability of working in the US?