The League

Gandalf Stops SOPA

by Erik Kain · January 19, 2012

Erik Kain

Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.

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Will Truman says:

January 19, 2012 at 3:28 pm

Not to get too partisan here, especially since I know that here at the LoOG most left-leaners, Democrat-leaners, and Democrats opposed SOPA, but the bottom fell out due in large part due to a GOP exodus, in addition to Wyden’s heroic efforts and the administration taking a stand.

In fact, one of the impressive things to me is that the GOP didn’t oppose the administration on this purely for opposition sake. If asked a week ago what Republican congressfolk would do if the administration came out against SOPA, I would have said “Oh, they’ll double down” without hesitation.

There’s not a lot to point to the GOP and say “good job” about, but I am pleased with what happened here (at least with a number of GOPers).Report
Jeff says:

January 19, 2012 at 4:49 pm

I struck many of us as Bizzarro-World that Bachman is opposed to SOPA/PIPA and Frankin is for it. WTF????Report
- Will Truman in reply to Jeff says:
  
  January 19, 2012 at 5:18 pm
  
  Well, Franken is a product of Hollywood (as with Bono and the music industry). There’s also this, most charitably in the sense that “these are the people who have their ear.” If you’re listening to what Hollywood has to say on the matter, I’m sure they have a convincing argument to someone that doesn’t already have a strong opinion on the matter.Report
DensityDuck says:

January 19, 2012 at 5:32 pm

People are saying the GOP are “heroes” for “taking a principled stand”.

I say they’re bend-with-the-wind cowards who decided that this was their chance to jump in front of the parade and claim that it makes them the bandleaders.

It’s not a principled stand to go with mob rule. What if millions of people demonstrate against healthcare reform, financial-industry regulation, raising taxes on higher-income citizens? Do we ditch all those things, too, and call it a principled stand?Report
- James K in reply to DensityDuck says:
  
  January 20, 2012 at 5:12 am
  
  True, but it’s the closest thing to principled you can expect from a politician.Report