

Saving Network Neutrality Will Require a Culture War on Corruption - newscloud
http://jeffreifman.com/2014/05/05/its-time-for-a-populist-culture-war-on-corruption
http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jeffreifman.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;05&#x2F;05&#x2F;its-time-for-a-populist-culture-war-on-corruption
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hga
Wow. This guy is massively confused. First he quotes this conclusion:

 _“contrary to what decades of political science research might lead you to
believe, ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their
government does in the United States.”_

Then for his own proofs of that he first lists the abject failure of the top
down, elite gun control movement since 1994 in the face of grassroots
opposition (and often opposition to the eeeevil NRA; e.g. that 1994 "assault
weapons" law was the first Federal gun control measure to pass without the
NRA's OK).

For example, in 1986 less than a handful of states were concealed carry "shall
issue" or better (I'm not sure it was more than Vermont, the only state to
never restrict the bearing of arms, and Washington state, but lately I've been
told Indiana had a good regime), them starting with Florida in 1987 it's swept
the nation, ending with Wisconsin and Iowa in 2011, leaving around 8 states.
Since then the courts, following _Heller_ and _McDonald_ , which wouldn't have
happened without (indirect) gun owner support, have forced it on Illinois and
California and Hawaii are in the process (resulting in a total of 90% (!) of
the population), leaving only a few benighted northeastern states and
Maryland.

This, and abject failure of post-1994 Federal gun control measures, the net
gain in gun laws post-Sandy Hook, etc. etc. etc., is one of the most
significant modern political developments, but he scores it as "corruption".
You should realize you're in deep trouble when the only significant remaining
anti-gun organization is billionaire Bloomberg's (not counting Josh Sugerman's
VPC think tank) ... and he just had to do a refresh/relaunch of it.

Anyway, like gun control, I believe net neutrality abuses will result in
productive political counter-reactions if and when they get bad enough that
enough citizens get sufficiently upset. At which point the the telcos and
cable companies will wonder what hit them.

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regoldste
The article is an incisive analysis of the pernicious effect of money on
politics, though it mostly repeats arguments that Lawrence Lessig has been
making for the past five years, and adds little new insight to the
conversation.

Towards the end of the article Reifman proposes a thoughtful but perhaps
overly-simplistic solution: a populist "culture war against the corrupting
influence of financial power in government." But he doesn't develop this idea
or offer any roadmap for how it would work. And it isn't clear that the
culture war strategy which has been so successful for single-issue advocacy--
e.g., marriage equality and marijuana legalization--would be a successful
model for an abstract, theoretical, and systemic issue like campaign finance.
Or at least, it isn't clear _how_ this would work in practice.

Perhaps I'm underestimating the public, but I think it's considerably
difficult to create meaningful conversations about the conceptual topics--
e.g., theories of representative democracy--that are at the heart of this
issue. While this issue is undeniably important, it is also--to all but the
political science nerds among us--also undeniably unsexy, theoretically
tedious, and difficult for the average person to relate to. I would be
interested to hear him flesh out suggestions for how to develop a successful
culture war that effectively educates and engages the public on these complex
issues.

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z4n3
I was disappointed to read the article and find the author say so much about
his pet issues and so little about addressing the larger problem.

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croddin
The link needs a ":" after the http.

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newscloud
Right, sorry: [http://jeffreifman.com/2014/05/05/its-time-for-a-populist-
cu...](http://jeffreifman.com/2014/05/05/its-time-for-a-populist-culture-war-
on-corruption)

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jessaustin
This title inspires a more Betteridgeian one: _If Saving X Requires Any
Progress Whatsoever on Insoluble Problem Y, Can X Be Saved?_

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joelrunyon
Insoluble or unsolvable?

~~~
jessaustin
Yes.

