Re:To Save Net Neutrality, We Must Build Our Own Internet
by aaronbrethorst on Friday November 24, 2017 @03:55AM
(#15770170)
How're you feeling about the choice of (someone) vs. Rossi, out of curiosity? (also, I see we have a bunch of shared connections on LinkedIn. I'm ex-Visual Studio.)
Re:To Save Net Neutrality, We Must Build Our Own Internet
by int_19h on Friday November 24, 2017 @06:49AM
(#15770605)
It depends on who that someone will be, of course, but I'm feeling rather optimistic - our district went for Clinton by 3 points, and I think by 2018 any Republican candidate won't be able to clearly distance themselves away from Trump and the federal GOP platform. Reichert had the benefit of being the incumbent, and being a fairly moderate Republican (or rather a very pragmatic one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIlizXcKVLY).
If you mean who I'd vote for, it would be the Dem candidate, no question. The parties are far enough now that I don't foresee a situation where a Republican candidate would be more closely aligned with me on the issues than a Democrat, even a particularly disagreeable one. But, more importantly and urgently, I think that this administration must have some counterbalance in the Congress to check it. But this is a moot question, anyway, because I'm not a citizen and cannot vote.
Re:To Save Net Neutrality, We Must Build Our Own Internet
by aaronbrethorst on Friday November 24, 2017 @12:48PM
(#15772016)
I meant the former, but I appreciate the answers to both.
The ones that are on shaky ground are those in areas that previously voted Republican primarily for economic rather than social reasons (i.e. for the sake of low taxes, not because they wanted to ban abortion etc), and are now flipping to blue because Republican social policies became intolerable. This is many suburban districts. And Republicans there are listening; for example, in my district (WA-8), Dave Reichert voted against AHCA.
The catch is, Republicans in those districts know that even if they pander to the new electorate somewhat, there are still enough reasons why their Democrat opponent will likely get their vote. They'd basically need to be liberal on everything except taxes (and given the nature of the tax proposal that Republicans unveiled, not even on that, since it hurts the suburban mid/high-middle class dwellers most!), at which point they might as well just switch parties. So you see a bunch of guys saying they won't run for re-election at all, and then they treat their remaining term as a means to squeeze the few last things in while they can.