Since there are two comments so far that have so completely misunderstood how this works, I guess I did a poor job of explaining it.
Powerful people have the option to work their connections to end the TSA, but that is a lot more effort than paying the $100, giving up their fingerprints and accepting the mostly hidden indignity of a background check (which, for $100 can't be more than a credit check, real background checks cost tens of thousands of dollars). So the TSA has basically taken the wind out of the sails of anyone who could hurt them but is not ideologically opposed to what they do, and frankly, the vast majority of Americans, rich and poor, haven't thought about it enough to have an idealogical position and will be happy to take the path of least of resistance.
As for all the "regular" people who sign up for pre-check, they don't in anyway negate pre-check's ability to co-opt the ire of powerful people. If some percentage of the plebes sign up, that doesn't make things any more annoying for the powerful. Most regular people won't be signing up, if you don't fly more than a couple of times a year, it usually isn't worth the effort - you get past the checkpoint and just try to forget about it while you go on with the rest of your trip.
Powerful people have the option to work their connections to end the TSA, but that is a lot more effort than paying the $100, giving up their fingerprints and accepting the mostly hidden indignity of a background check (which, for $100 can't be more than a credit check, real background checks cost tens of thousands of dollars). So the TSA has basically taken the wind out of the sails of anyone who could hurt them but is not ideologically opposed to what they do, and frankly, the vast majority of Americans, rich and poor, haven't thought about it enough to have an idealogical position and will be happy to take the path of least of resistance.
As for all the "regular" people who sign up for pre-check, they don't in anyway negate pre-check's ability to co-opt the ire of powerful people. If some percentage of the plebes sign up, that doesn't make things any more annoying for the powerful. Most regular people won't be signing up, if you don't fly more than a couple of times a year, it usually isn't worth the effort - you get past the checkpoint and just try to forget about it while you go on with the rest of your trip.