[Nova]

I suspect that without the Internet, this immigration bill would have already passed; and with a minimum of protest. All of the talking heads on TV would have been reporting on how the bill enjoys the support of 90% of Americans. Those opposed to the bill would have been dismissed as bigots, etc. with almost no serious opposition ever admitted to by the MSM and Congress.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Possibly, since it was a smokey-backroom bill worked out by the elite of the Senate. Those have always tended to slide through too quickly for a reaction to develop. But the Internet has hyper-speeded-up everything, including the ability to generate a reaction. There’s no way the deliberative legislative process will ever be able to outpace the speed of communication in the new era. But still the saturation level is astounding - that it can now move that many people that quickly is mind-boggling. It took saturation TV commercials and talk radio a long time to deep six Hillary-care. It’s taken the Internet almost no time (comparitively) to knock down a backroom deal by the very top of the political elite class. That’s new paradigm-type stuff. A watershed moment.