2017-05-25 – Earlier this week I urged by Facebook friends to go to the FCC website to oppose the current proposal to end net neutrality. You can do that by going to www.gofccyourself.com. You can read my 2016 post on the subject here. But that’s not the point of today’s post.

The point of today’s post is to counter the “what’s-the-point?” attitude that I got back from one of my friends.

The point is that the Trump administration, and the GOP leadership are paper tigers. As long as there is no opposition, they will bully their way forward. But as soon as we put up a fuss, they hide and they back down. We’ve seen this many times since Trump took office.

The most recent occurred Monday, having to do with an obscure piece of financial regulation called the “fiduciary rule.” A little over a year ago, the Obama administration put in a new rule that requires investment advisers to stop selling you retirement investments based on how much commission they can earn. Under the new rule, they have to act in your best interest, not theirs. It seems like common sense, the honest way to do business. But honest business is not the Trump way so, in March, the administration delayed the rule so they could reconsider it. Monday, they backed off. When the initial delay expires on June 9, Obama’s rule will go into effect as planned.

So when the FCC proposes to withdraw net neutrality, it doesn’t mean it will happen. If we show them that someone cares.

These are, of course, not the only examples.

Early on, Trump tried out a Muslim ban on entry into this country. We made noise. Suits were filed. And the ban (in both iterations) was struck down.

Then there was the attempt to repeal Obamacare. We made noise. Republican representatives went into hiding. The first attempt didn’t even come to a vote. The second attempt was punted to the Senate, but I suspect it won’t get very far—if we keep up the noise. (Yesterday’s CBO scoring said that the new bill is not very different from the last.)

Then there was the threat to withhold federal money from cities and states that don’t cooperate with the administration’s attempt to increase deportations. We made noise. The cities and states pushed back. The Attorney General backed down.

These folks are sneak thieves.

They don’t really care whose house they burgle. They are going to take the path of least #resistance.  We are the ones who determine the level of resistance. If we resist at one point, they go somewhere else. If we don’t resist, they enter and wreak havoc.

So think about what’s important enough for you to resist.

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