Not to deny that Americans' political predispositions color their responses to issues raised in public policy, but I find this article's interpretation of research on attitudes toward government surveillance disturbingly shallow.
First, it looks to me as though the overall percentages did not change much between 2006 and 2013. That is--the number of Americans opposed to government agencies snooping on them (regardless of their party) remained roughly the same. Similarly, the number of folks accepting the surveillance stayed about the same.
The article's characterization of the data as indicating a "virtually unyielding preference for partisanship over principle" seems purely a matter interpretation. Framed in another way, the data might be used to provoke interest in why the snooping-opposed faction tended to identify more as Democrat back in 2006 and more as Republican in 2013 (and vice versa). In that light, we should be grousing about our population's fixation on single-issue politics over party loyalty, or some such thing.
Second, a lot of variables underwent change between 2006 and 2013--not just the party of the US President. For one thing, the iPhone hit the market in 2007. Could it be that some folks just started becoming real introspective about government eavesdropping after realizing how much of their daily lives they were pumping through the aether with the mobile playthings they find so addictive?
I don't think the data this article cites means what they say it means.
NSA Confidential: We Love Big Brother If He's Got the Right Party Affiliation