OK, so what do you propose we do instead?
crickets
crickets
Find one Member of Congress who's been vocally supportive of these programs, and run them out of their job. Throw down a challenge -- "we're coming for Representative X" -- then form a PAC (or piggyback on the PAC of a supportive org, like EFF or the ACLU) dedicated specifically to turning that person out of office, raise money, and use it to nail their scalp to the wall.
Once you've demonstrated that you have enough support and money to do that, I guarantee the rest of Congress will start paying close attention to you. Most Members of Congress care a lot more about their next election than they do about issues in the abstract. And if one isn't enough, you'll have built infrastructure that you can use the next election cycle to go after two, or five, or ten more.
In other words, be the Wayne Wheeler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Wheeler) of individual privacy. He used these exact tactics to pass Prohibition. Prohibition! Imagine what you can do if you harness them to something that's actually worth passing.
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/18/nation/la-na-adv-fei...
One of the hallmarks of an effective issue advocacy group is that it cares more about performance on its issue than it does about party affiliation. So you might want to take on one Democrat and one Republican (preferably from different states, to head off criticism that your movement is geographically limited) to make the point.
One note, though: there is a lot more money sloshing around in a Senate race then there is in a House race. You might want your first targets to by House members, therefore, to make the most of what will at first be limited resources.
Because she's not up for re-election until 2018.
To throw out Feinstein?
lol
Fighting back isn't about getting what we want today, it's about being on a road for it. In your community, wherever you live, there are probably a handful of issues that overwhelmingly drive each election. This is true most places. It's important to make sure that Internet Freedom ranks alongisde things like Worker's rights, Women's rights, Immigration Reform, etc..
It's important that the next generation of politicians have no choice but to address this as part of their platform.
While I really like the fiery call to action another commenter made about "nailing their scalp to the wall" with anyone who supports this, it's very clearly a generational problem. I think a lot of damage could be done to unseat someone like Feinstein or Boxer who do good jobs of standing up for other issues and are simply ignorant on this one, and probably always will be. Hopefully they will staff up, listen to the EFF and ACLU, and I can tell you from having been involved in activism from the jail cell to the armchair that when you call your representative you are helping to DEMAND that they meet with the experts who are on our side. When we choose a day to call them, that means that everyone in congress will be talking about this issue today, whether they like it or not, even if every time their chief of staff speaks to them they mention, "and lots more people called about the internet."
This tells them that a bunch of people are upset, and even if they can't or won't each individually give us exactly what we want - votes for and against, depending on the situation, it registers that to preserve their career they need to engage this concern somehow.
Generationally, we will win this. We will undo whatever damage the current generation of power brokers do, but undoing fucked up legislation is REALLY FUCKING HARD, so if we can even round some of the corners for the discussion we'll be having in ten years, if we can even slow each lost battle by a year, by a term, by a decade, the tide will turn, some of today's ignorant voters and legislators will die, and we will inherit a world that has far more flaws than flawed internet regulations, like dying oceans.
Also I wouldn't be too hard on the OP, activism is hard, and it's fucking frustrating, and it sounds like he or she engages with a lot of activists and doesn't hear the greater conversation they're trying to influence, but hears the DEAFENING BLAH FUCKING BLAH which I totally sympathize with, but that DEAFENING BLAH FUCKING BLAH is a whimper to some people and sometimes we just need to mostly agree on a message and execute it and come back tomorrow to do it some more.
If the alternative is shutting up and watching the wrong shit happen and complaining next week that noone wants to help with my awesome activism plan, I'll be calling my representative today.
Politicians care about one thing - getting reelected and we all know the effects of money in politics. Let's put together a list of politicians we want to get out of office, fund their opponents aggressively and find leverage. By leverage, I mean find what makes these politicians uncomfortable, what they really don't want you to make a fuss about and do some convincing to get them to see the light.
We need an insider, a Frank Underwood to take care of things inside the beltway.
Source: a couple long-time political operatives teaching a weekend seminar I attended a couple years ago.
Signing an internet petition, though? That didn't even bring Firefly back on TV.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_to_Restore_Sanity_and/or...