The End of Trump Neutrality?

We are about to see the end of Net Neutrality, and that could be very bad for Donald Trump.

On this Wednesday, I think it is a given that the Federal  Communications Commission in the USA will allow internet service providers to discriminate between customers, offering different packages for different levels of services. This practice is illegal now as the internet is regulated like a public utility – e.g. think water. If you offer water for sale, you must offer the same water to everyone in your area at the same price.

After Wednesday, this utility status will almost 100% be over for internet services. I say this because I am fairly certain that the wealthy corporations that own internet services in the USA, and who have no doubt bought every single politician who can possibly influence the FCC decision, will have made sure to arrange to get the decision they want.

As with medical care, Americans are about to get gouged to the bone for internet services as well. The main lies that will be told to justify this will be that this will enable competition  - internet services are mainly monopolies in the USA now now; and the development of new programming and content - in a country with the most prolific program development on planet earth.

This means that the price of the internet will be rising dramatically throughout the USA. Again, this could be very bad for Donald Trump.

So far, nothing has stuck to President Trump.

Not his shameless lies – too numerous to count.

Not his use of Twitter to engage in banter that reduces his office to something like the level of a playground spat between five year olds.

Not his history of shameless treatment of women - even in the midst of what may be a cultural revolution regarding how women are treated by people in power.

Not an ever-increasing list of charges related to dealings with Russia by his Trump election-team associates – even when the US intelligence services have confirmed, and he has agreed, that Russia tried to subvert that last US presidential election.

Not his relentless failure to move on the marquee aspects of his electoral agenda ahead – no repeal of Obamacare; no 45% tariff on China or declaration that China is a currency manipulator; no balanced federal budget or any chance of the debt being paid; no economic growth of 4% a year; no new border wall that Mexico will pay for; no tax reform giving families of two a 35% tax cut; no lowering the business tax rate to 15% (it will likely be 20%.)

Not his cavalier foreign policy that threatens peace on earth – including: baiting the madman in North Korea; recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in an obvious attempt to divert attention from the Mueller probe; and, tepid support for NATO in the face of an increasingly aggressive Russia.

Trump’s success to date has come down to his fabulous talent for unifying his tribe – the Trump Republicans – and his useful allies in the press. This may be about to end.

None of the issues noted above actually hits home with his supporters. They likely don’t care about things like the recognition of Jerusalem, and they will give him a pass on anything that requires Congressional approval, like tax reform.

But they may not give him a pass when they have to pay 100% more for internet access that is actually worse than what they have now, which is a very real scenario after Net Neutrality disappears on Wednesday.

All politics is local, and the primary consideration for all voters is their pocketbook. Issues that speak to billions and trillion of dollars, like the corporate tax give-away that is making its way through the Congress, are too remote for most voters to grasp or care about. But raising the price of internet access even by $20 a month will strike home with everyone, everywhere in that country, including Trump’s base. Unlike the issues above, he will be blamed, personally.

It is worth noting that only about 75% of Americans are using the internet – placing the USA 34th in the world in terms of internet usage. I would think that this absolutely disgraceful level of internet usage is to be expected in a country where one in eight people live on food stamps, and likely can’t afford any internet access at all. How many people will be losing their access in coming years and months as American corporate providers squeeze the citizens of that country for all they are worth?