Power To the People

My, oh my, it's amazing what a little populism can do to the sociopolitical landscape, isn't it?

Yesterday's protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act were more successful than anyone could have imagined. While the latter bill remains on track for a vote in the Senate this coming Tuesday, the demonstrations against the bills - from street protests in Manhattan to blackouts of various Web sites - caused several House members to drop their sponsorship of the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Meanwhile, out in Wisconsin, petitions with a million signatures calling for an election to recall Governor Scott Walker like a defective Pinto were turned in at the state government accounting office in Madison - almost twice the 540,208 signatures required. Walker says he's confident that he can survive a recall election because 80 percent of the state's population didn't sign the petitions. Bear in mind that about a third of the people in Wisconsin who didn't sign the petitions couldn't have signed them, as they were too young to vote. What Walker conveniently forgets is that he got in to office with 1,128,941 votes out of only 2,133,244 votes cast, or 52.25 percent of the vote, between him and his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett. If everyone who signed the petitions votes in the recall election, Walker stands a pretty slim chance of holding on to his office.

Meanwhile, public opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline on environmental grounds - particularly the idea of the pipeline on environmentally sensitive grounds - caused President Obama to cancel the project. The Republicans in Congress wanted a decision on the pipeline, which would originate in Canada and carry dirty tar sand oil to Texas, by February 29. President Obama, having decided that not even an extra day in February allowed enough time for a proper environmental assessment, just said no. Republicans complain that Obama missed out on an opportunity to create more jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil (even though tar sand oil from a pipeline would make its way out of Texas to the global petroleum market).

Hey, I have a great idea on how to create jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil: Build more mass transit networks, especially high-speed train lines!

Which returns me to the unpleasant topic of Scott Walker. Walker canceled Wisconsin's high-speed rail project and is shifting transportation funding to highways. Yes, he has oil refinery and highway construction interests to repay for funding his gubernatorial campaign in 2010, but it turns out that Walker is not a big fan of mass transit in any circumstance. He's opposed expanding it since he began his political career in the Wisconsin state assembly.

These victories are not the last word on any of these issues. Anti-piracy legislation still has broad support in Congress. Scott Walker hasn't been recalled yet. And TransCanada, the company that wants to build that pipeline, can re-apply for permission to build it. In each case, battles, not wars, were won. But these wins all prove that populist movements can succeed. And you don't have to camp out in a park or dress in a silly costume to make your point - and a lot of Occupy Wall Street protestors did both.

(Note: Occupy Wall Street protestors may sometimes resemble "Let's Make a Deal" contestants, but there's a difference between the two. "Let's Make a Deal" contestants are known to win! :-p )