Congress is generally more dangerous than presidents are. They know they can get away with almost anything because the people continue to elect them & their friends regardless what they do while in office. They know they can get away with almost whatever they want.Originally Posted by hurricaNe
In the case of SOPA the author of the bill was caught red handed engaging in copyright infringement in creating his campaign website. Oh sure, some peon is going to take the fall for it. But there is no accountability in congress and Smith doesn't have to worry about it personally.
Everyone hates congress, but this hate is directed at an institution [congress as a whole] rather than a person [as is the case with the presidency]. Which is why when normal every day Americans talk about how angry they are over the bail outs we gave wallstreet, that anger is directed at either Bush or Obama and not the specific representatives & senators who voted in favor of it at the time. How often do you hear someone on the street or even on a forum say "I hate Rep. #name"? You may see names named when we're talking about majority or minority speakers [it's not hard to find people who dislike polosi for example] but the people who put our rights under attack as part of normal every day operations aren't brought into conversations. Not surprisingly the people then turn around and re-elect these congressmen; and when someone else is voted in instead, it's usually someone who is no different from the people already in office.
SOPA should be the kiss of death to the political career of every politician who cosponsored it. This will never happen, but that's the way it should happen. Until we start doing better at the ballots we will continue to get politicians who think the rules don't apply to them; and continue to believe they can screw the people in any way they want.
In the case of this recent "python ban" I think this shows what I am talking about here: If they find that banning 4 species does not cause any notable risk to their careers, and that it continues to be business as usual; then they won't loose any sleep over banning more species later on. Face it: if they can support something as totalitarian and crazy as SOPA, and survive the outrage that followed it; then they surely can ban whatever pets they want. What would they have to worry about?
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