Erick Erickson Promises To Work Hard To Defeat Any Rightwing SOPA Supporters In Congress

TechDirt.com ^ | 12/23/2011 | Mike Masnick

[JerseyHighlander]

Prominent Rightwing Blogger Promises To Work Hard To Defeat Any Rightwing SOPA Supporters In Congress

from the good-for-him,-how-about-the-left? dept

One of the more interesting things about the whole SOPA/PIPA debate (and, as I've pointed out for many years, about any of the intellectual property policy fights) is how non-partisan they are. In fact, I think it's important that they're non-partisan, because when things become partisan, they become... well... silly (on both sides). SOPA/PIPA supporters keep touting how their bills have "bi-partisan" support, but I'd argue what's much more powerful is how the growing movement protesting these bills is almost entirely non-partisan. There are tons of people all over the political spectrum protesting, and none of the discussion has been about broad political philosophies or major party talking points. They've all been about the specific issues with the bill.

And that's creating some interesting opposition that may start to wake up Congress. We've definitely seen people associated with both ends of the political spectrum come out against the bills. For example, how often do you see Nancy Pelosi and Darrell Issa agree on something? We've also seen some prominent Tea Party groups, like the Tea Party Patriots, as well as prominent "left" movements/sites like MoveOn and DailyKos come out against the bill.

Now, Erick Erickson, the guy behind the rightwing site RedState, has said that not only is he against SOPA, but that he will do everything in his power to defeat any Republican who co-sponsors the bill. And he challenges people on the left to do the same with Democratic co-sponsors:

A fund should be created and the left should go out and find candidates to take on the Democrat sponsors. The right should go out and find candidates to take on the Republican sponsors.... The money should then be used to fund the primary challenges against the incumbent sponsors of SOPA. Let the right vet and direct the funding on the right so no one thinks the left is trying to pick the challenger and vice-versa on the left.

He even admits that this might take out some politicians he really likes and supports, such as Rep. Marsha Blackburn (whose hypocrisy on the topic of regulating the internet, we've discussed in the past). As Erickson says:

Killing SOPA is that important.

So important that it's worth campaigning and sending funds against candidates you otherwise agree with.

For a few months now, we'd been warning SOPA/PIPA supporters that this was going to become an election issue. It appears that's starting in earnest, and it's not going to look good for such supporters. And this truly is a non-partisan issue. Rather than this being about some concept of "left vs. right" or Rs vs. Ds, it's about those who understand the internet vs. those who don't understand or are afraid of the internet and wish to control that which they fear. And that's why SOPA and PIPA are becoming toxic politically for their supporters. There are a lot more people who actually do get this stuff out there than are in Congress. And they're starting to speak out as they realize just how big an issue this is.

[Redbob]

This link (below) explains the issue in simple language, including the (really simple) note that SOPA stands for the “Stop On-Line Piracy Act”:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2824965/posts

[upsdriver]

I have no idea what SOPA/PIPA is. The first paragraph of an article should spell it out.

[wintertime]

What does SOPA and PIPA mean?

Sorry, I haven't been following this story, so spelling out the acronym and giving a little background would be helpful.

[RetiredTexasVet]

It is just common courtesy to use the full text of an acronym following its first use in an article. But hey, you don’t have to, but don’t expect a lot of readers to want to read the posting of a discourteous writer.

[gogogodzilla]

Standard good writing expects the author to actually describe the subject that he is writing about. Not force the reader to ‘look it up’.

[LucyT]

SOPA stands for the “Stop On-Line Piracy Act”

Net Censorship Bills On Top of the Agenda for After the Holidays

"...call your Senator and Representative repeatedly to protest against this bill that breaks the Internet, and spells the end of FreeRepublic.com."

bgill wrote:

"Hussein has been wanting an internet czar. It would follow right along with his two nazi "report your friends and neighbors programs". - Tin foil or not, there’s been more than one FR member’s computer to be hacked by what can only be government thugs. We’ve already slid down the slippery slop and are flying high speed smack dab into communist Amerika."

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Importantly, SOPA is an “acid test” of politicians who claim to be populist or conservative. Those backing SOPA are, for all intents and purpose, bought and paid for by agenda lobbyists, who they are far more supportive of than the people they claim to represent.

In other words, they may *claim* that they support the Tea Party agenda down the line, but if they support SOPA, they are lying.

And if they have lied before, they will lie twice as hard in defending their role in this travesty, and why they should be reelected, “because they support the Tea Party agenda”.

They are lying. As much as Obama would be lying if he said that he supported the Tea Party agenda.

[JerseyHighlander]

A video explanation of SOPA and PIPA
While watching this video, keep in mind that SOPA and PIPA

1. give the US government the right to force ISPs to block access to FreeRepublic.com.

2. Gives the US government and private corporations the right to sue US based search engines from listing FreeRepublic.com in search results.

3. The US government can force payment services (such as Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, etc.) to block all financial donations transaction from freepers to FreeRepublic LLC, and shutdown accounts and confiscate all monies in FreeRepublic's accounts.

4. Any and every media copyright holder will be able to sue FreeRepublic.com for infringement and FreeRepublic.com LLC will be given no notice of the lawsuit, five days after the lawsuit is filed, FreeRepublic.com will be put on the blacklist and all US based ISPs will have to block access.

5. For FreeRepublic LLC to regain control of the FreeRepublic.com domain name, Jim Robinson, John Rbinson will have to sue in court under the pretense of guilty until proven innocent.

6. Repeated lawsuits could see Jim and John and other LLC boardmembers threatened with legal fines and jail time, depending on how the committee conference bill is written up in conference.

7. Every website becomes responsible for every single piece of user content posted on the website. A Single infringing link or copyrighted piece of media posted on FreeRepublic.com will be enough to permanently shutdown FreeRepublic.com

8. PIPA and SOPA break the foundational technology of the Internet, it's technical and I'll just post a link to an open letter from dozens of the founders of the Internet.https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/internet-inventors-warn-against-sopa-and-pipa

[JerseyHighlander]

See the above post for some explanations of SOPA and PIPA.

[kallisti]

hey, i’ve been drinking booker’s...

[conservativebuckeye]

I think most of us would appreciate you not using the God’s name in vain on Christmas. I agree it should be explained better, I think execution is a bit extreme.

[Ron H.]

Er, Ah, I’m not cool and tech savvy like it seems all you guys are.

I would really like to know what the heck SOPA and PIPPA are and why I should care?

Yeah, me too. I think it is some sort of elitism speak.

[upchuck]

Jim,

This should be attacked with the same vigor we show during a FReepathon.

Each FReeper should contact his/her two Senators and Representative about these issues.

The continued long term existence of Free Republic may hang in the balance.

upchuck

[Ron H.]

[Magic Fingers]

Have any of the Republican presidential contenders stated a position on this legislation?

[a fool in paradise]

Also puzzling as to why the author put the word “left” in quotes when describing DailyKos and MoveOn. There is no doubt they are left, if any word should have been in quotes it is “prominent”.

Redstate was called right-wing without quotes. I thought initially Redstate started out as a comedy site. Maybe that is a misconception from their viral videos campaign when they first got attention.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks JerseyHighlander.

[Bogey78O]

He should make a public bet with the move-on founder of which side will toss out the most SOPA supporters.

[upchuck]

Thanks!

[lquist1]

Good Lord! Do these freakin statists EVER give us a break! You can’t turn around for one second without them making another attempt to take away our freedoms! I thought we put an end to this B.S. legislation with the November 2010 elections. Apparently, we didn’t. EVERYBODY here needs to be in touch with their legislators frequently over their holiday recess. This CANNOT be allowed to stand!