What we see now is two senators discovering something that can be connected to drugs, noticing that no one else tried to turn it into political profit yet; they just grab the opportunity to appear "tough on crime".
You answered your own question right there. It takes almost 0 effort for someone high up in the executive branch to kill off the American portion of bitcoin. FBI has jurisdiction on interstate commerce and the Secret Service has jurisdiction on counterfeiting (I am
not saying bitcoin is counterfeiting, I'm saying they can successfully sell it to the media as an anti-counterfeiting operation). There are dozen of bureaucrats in DC with this much power, and all they have to do is sent out a memo to their underlings. A simple email.
If they succeed, they gain political prestige. Tough on crime, war on drugs, et cetera.
If they fail, they can claim it's just part of their job. In the very worst case they are still protected by the Executive privilege.
So far, two Senators have cashed in on this free "political profit". I expect many more to follow suit. This is how ugly our democracy has become.
There are other senators pushing other issues the think they can get politiccal profit from. Only some of these pet issues will amke it into legislation; we, the Bitcoin community, notice these two senators, since their issue is Bitcoin. All politicions are pushing for or against some issue. I do not see why Bitcoin should be among the few issues that make it into legislation. Then I don't know that much about your democracy.
I have seen the call for internet censorship to fight CP in Germany, it became a big political issue, made it into yellow press and legislation, and nevertheless in the end it failed, with the law now revoced. Bitcoin might be in for a similar treatment, but it might take a few years.
Philipp