Earlier in May, Senate Democrats passed a controversial Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution, desperately attempting to resurrect Obama’s repealed Net Neutrality law through a legislative backdoor. While the CRA will likely die in the Senate, many progressives who support the maneuver believe that Net Neutrality is a pocket-book issue, one which everyone knows about and thus wants its reinstatement into law.
After passage of the CRA (or by virtue of it), one professional activist group boldly claimed, "We've turned net neutrality into a mainstream issue for the first time ever.”
Well, not so fast.
If you look at America’s three top polling companies – Gallup, Rasmussen and Ipsos – a more telling picture emerges, one which belies that pro-Net Neutrality spin.
In Gallup’s latest “Snapshot,” it notes “Americans remain most likely to say the government is the greatest problem facing the U.S., with 20% naming some aspect of the federal government or its elected leaders as the nation's top problem.” Rounding out the top five such concerns are immigration (10%); race relations (7%); the economy (5%); and unifying the country (5%).
Net Neutrality is nowhere on that list, or on the site’s landing page.
Rasmussen also seems to indicate a similar lackadaisical attitude toward Net Neutrality. When on that website, one is likely to notice such headlines as “42% of likely U.S. voters now think the country is heading in the right direction.” Tellingly, however, Net Neutrality is simply absent from the site’s topical issues coverage.
Closing this loop, Ipsos concludes that “Americans continue to view healthcare as the most important problem facing the US today (17%). The second most important issue is morality (13%), followed by the economy generally (11%).”
Again, Net Neutrality is AWOL.
There’s good reason for the issue’s absence.
Net Neutrality is a made-up problem; a contrivance which was designed to subsidize edge companies like Google and Netflix in payback for political support of President Obama in ’08 and ’12 (Just last week, Netflix patted Obama on the back again, announcing a $50 million contract with the Obamas to produce content for the Silicon Valley company).
Even hardcore Net Neutrality supporters recognize that in this most recent iteration of the arcane policy battle, the CRA is no more than a ploy to entice millennials to vote for progressives in the midterms. The Nation opines that with the CRA, “Democrats have indicated that they are ready to make net neutrality a 2018 campaign issue,” adding, “If they follow through, the potential for drawing a new generation of tech-savvy voters to the polls will increase.” (Emphasis added)
Mainstream issues like the economy, or healthcare, or immigration don’t have “if they follow throughs” attached to them. Specious ones do, however.
On June 11th, the FCC will officially return the Internet to the successful light-touch regulation which ignited the medium and its ecosystem in the first place. The Net Neutrality CRA, pushed by Democrats, wants to stop that real, mainstream success story.
Net Neutrality is a Silicon Valley, Soros-funded fraud. Americans know they have more important things to be concerned about.
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