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Comment by wdewind | Hacker News Reader

Please don't bring divisive politics into HN. Fwiw Ajit Pai was appointed to the FCC by Obama not Trump.

Pai was appointed by Obama and confirmed by the Senate as a Republican under law limiting the number of members of one party to a bare majority and a long-standing, strong tradition that the President defer to the leadership of the other party in the Senate in appointing members filling the seats which must be filled by members not of the President's party. (Which Trump slow followed when renominating Democratic former commissioner Rosenworcel.) [0]

Blaming Obama for Pai being on the committee, rather than the Republican Party, is like blaming Elizabeth II for acts of the British Government rather than the parliamentary majority party.

OTOH, where no such legal or traditional constraint limited his choices, Trump selected Pai as FCC Chair, so blaming Trump for Pai’s current position and his reasonably direct endorsement of Pai’s long-overt goals for the FCC is appropriate.

[0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/tech-policy/201...

Look I understand what you're saying, but it's complicated. Obama chose to respect a tradition and he did so at the cost of allowing anti-NN people into the FCC. He could've found a republican that was pro-NN, but he didn't. You can argue about what tradition dictated, but as the president I think you have to take some responsibility for the choices being made, even if they are hard ones. Obama broke a lot of traditions and he suffered for it, especially in his first term, so I'm not saying this is a simple decision, or one that would've cost a reasonable amount of political capital, but he did have the actual, legal choice, and he did make it. This enabled Trump to select Pai as chair. So without Obama's decision Pai would not be chair either. It's ComplicatedTM.

> He could've found a republican that was pro-NN, but he didn't.

Any such appointee would not have been confirmed and thus would have been a waste of time.

This is a bit misleading...

He was appointed by Obama, but not as chairman -- and was a recommendation from McConnell.

Obama was pretty clearly pro net neutrality.

He was appointed at the direction of Republicans to occupy one of the Republican seats on the Commision.

He was designated FCC Chairman by Trump.

The entire world is made up of divisive politics. Unless you want this to be a place where nothing of substance is discussed, ever, then you cannot escape it.

Please don’t call out facts a divisive just because you don’t agree with them.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15926182

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