Plagued by infighting and the constant threat of a far-right insurgency, congressional Republicans have little to show after nearly 11 months at the helm of a unified government. The world-class fuckup that was Tuesday night's Alabama special election, as extraordinary as it was, only adds further credence to the mounting fears of a "blue wave" arriving to cream the
But despite its tenuous grasp on the legislature, and the looming threat of a revolted constituency come November, the party of Trump remains poised to arm Democrats with yet another advantage tomorrow, as they sit idly by while
As an opposition party, the GOP relied heavily on the perceived failures of its counterpart to seize control of the government: swarms of illegal immigrants crossing the border, the rise of ISIS, and the washing away of "traditional" American values. But it's difficult to imagine those themes will sound as sweet after two years of Republican control. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, or so it goes.
In a state that hasn't sent a Democrat to the US
The cost may, in fact, be dramatic. A non-partisan study published out of the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy yesterday revealed that only one in five Republican voters actually support Pai's proposal. And the results weren't gathered with random phone calls; the respondents were briefed on both sides of the argument. A government official representing the Trump administration's position reviewed the content of that briefing beforehand, according to the program's director.
Nevertheless, through their own inaction, congressional Republicans-who alone, through sheer force of numbers, have the power to delay tomorrow's vote-stand ready to cement the Democrats as the pro-internet party, yoking themselves in the meantime with spurious FCC claims that deregulating the broadband industry will, somehow, benefit American consumers more than Verizon's own profit margins.
The FCC's actual argument is that "market forces" will prevent the Comcasts and AT&Ts of the world from doing anything to violate net neutrality-even though they vigorously lobby against the rules enforcing it. But competition in the ISP market
is a joke
. Based on the FCC's own data, roughly
129 million Americans
only have one ISP provider to choose from. And Pai's argument that the the
We know that Republican voters have been calling on their representatives to oppose Pai's order. That isn't just happening in Arizona , where Republican Representative Mike Coffman has grown critical of Pai's plan-enough so that Wednesday morning Coffman called Pai out publicly for dodging his phone calls. (At time of writing, a photo of Coffman has surged to the top of Reddit's front page with more than 71,000 upvotes.)
"I can tell you that the congressman has been listening to his constituents back home about this issue, and after hearing their concerns decided to take action," Coffman's spokesperson told Gizmodo on Wednesday. "Again, all we are asking for is for a delay to have hearings, and let the peoples' representatives, Congress, weigh in on the issue."
The GOP is vastly underestimating the potency of this issue and the political cost of appearing anti-internet next year could very well devastate Republican candidates in close elections. The Republicans serving on the FCC aren't elected officials. They won't be the ones stuck defending a bunch of cable companies in the middle of a town hall meeting next fall.
Pai desperately wants this personal victory. So if Republicans in the House and Senate start feeling the heat today, he should strongly consider taking the day off, unplugging his phone, and finding somewhere to hide.