If you haven’t yet read Harold Feld’s humorous critique on the handling of network neutrality as a “political issue” during the recent elections, it’s worth the time.
Harold calls out two functional weaknesses in what constitutes the public interest constituency in D.C.: the desire to score quick political points with no long-term value and the penchant to react in a knee-jerk fashion when the drive to score backfires.
Using the example of a closing-days “network neutrality pledge” ginned up by a progressive blog, and the insidious echo-chamber effect of Twitter, Harold wonders if folks are losing track of the substance behind important policy issues such as network neutrality in exchange for symbolic sniping.
I expected the matter would finally die – until someone with an actual position in DC Policyland asked me in all seriousness whether I thought the election results were a referendum on net neutrality. At which point I decided that DC has its collective head thoroughly up its rectum that there is simply no use fighting this anymore….Hey, when Rome, do as the Romans. When in Policyland, blog and hope you get retweeted.
On this specific issue, Matthew Lasar is not hopeful. The strategy to outlaw data discrimination needs a serious overhaul.
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