Because Ajit Pai, who was appointed chairman of the FCC by President Donald Trump, used to work for Verizon, this has raised some hackles. Pai has been painted by many as the real-world equivalent of Kylo Ren, which is a timely pop-culture reference with a new Star Wars movie being released this weekend.
All of which leads us to an admission of mixed feelings. Net neutrality sounds beneficial for consumers, and in the age of a president who responds to dissent with the maturity of a toddler, the thought of major companies blocking particular websites is disturbing. This, after all, is how democracy is destroyed and dictators are created.
But while the issue of net neutrality is cause for concern, it also brings to mind one of my parenting mantras: Choose your battles. That’s what I tell my kids, particularly when they are complaining about something inconsequential. And considering that I am a better parent than I am a lawyer, it is especially relevant in this case.
You see, the policy of net neutrality was adopted in 2015. We managed to survive 20 years of the internet without it, and we probably didn’t notice when it took effect. Which means that the sky-is-falling critiques seem to ring with a touch of overreaction and a reminder that battles should be chosen with discretion.
An infantile determination
Undoubtedly, the Trump administration is driven by an infantile determination to overturn anything that has Obama’s name on it. Ignoring the fact that his predecessor is a man of dignity, Trump is intent upon appealing to the poorer nature of his supporters by pretending that the previous eight years of economic recovery and presidential decorum never happened.
As USA Today wrote in a scathingly accurate editorial the other day, Trump “is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.” As conservative columnist George Will wrote last week: “He completed his remarkably swift — it has taken less than 11 months — rescue of the 17th (president), Andrew Johnson, from the ignominy of ranking as the nation’s worst president.”
Still, it is not clear that net neutrality is the sword upon which Trump’s critics should fall. It seems more sensible to maintain focus upon an abhorrent tax bill, efforts to take health care away from people, an embrace of white supremacists, attempts to demonize the media, possible collusion with a foreign adversary to influence the election, and the normalization of lying as political strategy.
Then again, it is not wise to argue against Bob Ferguson. As noted in a press release: “We are 5-0 against the Trump Administration because they often fail to follow the law when taking executive action.”
And the guess here is that Ferguson is not yet tired of all the winning.