The Internet makes for some interesting political alignments

In response to Pat Caddell Weighs In Against Internet Globalization: ‘The Government Has Decided To Surrender The Country’:

I suspect many liberals would denounce Pat Caddell as a total apostate at this point – another CPAC appearance and he’ll basically be the third Koch Brother – but for what it’s worth, I’ve heard some other voices on the Left expressing a surprising degree of resistance to this decision as well.  Some of them are deeply worried about the threat of totalitarian governments getting veto power over websites they don’t like.  I didn’t hear the segment myself, but I’ve seen some online chatter that Alan Colmes expressed reservations along these lines on his radio show today.

After mulling the story over on Friday night, I found myself thinking about the anti-SOPA alliance, which surprised the heck out of those who created and supported that Internet security bill.  Perhaps young people will be inclined to favor the ICANN handover at first, out of a reflexive tendency to applaud anything global, and sneer at anything that smacks of American chauvinism.  But I could also see them turning against it, especially if the new international regulatory regime looks dodgy.

Caddell makes a point about the Administration’s eagerness to throw away American advantages that Republicans could use to devastating effect… if they have the guts to pick it up.  If some of the darker theories about Republican anxiety over winning a huge “wave” election in 2014 are true, and they decided to pull their punches to avoid a blowout, they won’t talk about ICANN much until 2015.