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I agree that there are some people who treated it this way, but then why would Pai/Trump bother repealing it, if that's all it was? Why spend their political capital on this, if it doesn't make a difference?
Other users have covered the reasons for repeal better than I would, and I don't think it actually cost Trump or the FCC much if any capital.
The FAANG companies tried to use their bully pulpit to force the FCC and ISPs to heel but aside from a lot of sound and fury on sites like reddit and hackernews their efforts didn't amount to all that much.
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There’s an idea bumping around in my head about how “political capital” doesn’t mean “currency.” Something like—Capital is an investment. Trump et al. weren’t spending (burning) their capital because everything was already partisan enough. The outrage was driven by Democrats who already 1) hated his guts and 2) distrusted corporations, so they didn’t get much more traction from an investment in corporate power.
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