Am I the only one that's tired of this bills showing up every 3-6 months? What will it take to stop this type of BS for good... or is that an impossible dream?
Obviously, my subtext is that the belief that there's a potent grassroots waiting to be activated over Y.R.O. issues is an online echo-chamber fallacy.
I actually believe there are the numbers. I just believe that an organization that has the discipline to attack candidates in the manner, for example, of the NRA is just not there in the YRO space.
My immediate reaction is that the NRA speaks to core identity issues for 100% of rural voters and the overwhelming majority of the half of the country that identifies as "conservative", as well as a pretty big chunk of non-conservatives who see guns as a constitutional bulwhark issue or who just like to nerd out on guns.
So it's not surprising to me that NRA activism generates attendance and financial support that dwarfs that of YRO issues, which have none of those features.
Again: there may have been YRO-type demonstrations that generated big numbers that would rebut this argument. Maybe you can find one?
Otherwise, this is a bit like saying "you can boot a candidate over abortion issues", which handwaves away the fact that abortion is a much, much, much hotter issue in the electorate than YRO issues are.
I'm not, like, personally invested in the idea that YRO lacks broad support. I'd probably like a lot of YRO reforms. But I am invested in the notion that we are all talking and debating inside of an echo chamber that is only loosely connected to reality.
I would imagine getting public number for SOPA protests would be a good starting place. If the EFF is the lead organization and its money numbers are it, then you are correct.
[edit: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/primary... explain primaries in various states. tldr: party selects person via primary (various ways to vote) that gets their name on general election ballot under that party's name]
Which is to say that even when you've got the entire Tea Party movement at your back, it's still so difficult to oust an incumbent in a primary that it's shocking when it happens.
Whitehouse getting booted over CFAA is approximately as likely as Lessig winning the Presidency.
Right now there is no effective group in this space.
(Though, really, it might be reasonable to suspect that they are generally more vulnerable to primary than general election challenges, unlike most members -- they are generally people whose seats are secure for the party, because that means that they aren't likely to be forced compromise the party's interests for their own electoral prospects, making them more attractive as leaders. But the same effect means that they can be more vulnerable to fragmentation within the party.)
They'll stop when they pass the bill that lobbyists for this issue want.