Civil rights legislation was not "widely reviled". People were protesting in the streets for god's sake. It was not universally approved, of course, especiall

Civil rights legislation was not "widely reviled". People were protesting in the streets for god's sake. It was not universally approved, of course, especially in the southern states. But I don't think there's a really a comparison to be made here. SOPA was/is bought and paid for for a clearly tiny minority of interests. The civil rights laws emerged as a result of a contentious political process spurred on by protests and resistance by a sizable part of the population. It was certainly democratically motivated --- just not in the sense of counting heads. SOPA has nothing to do with democracy at all. It's about corporations protecting their interests. This happens all the time, of course, but to say that democracy should be thrown out the window because, well, sometimes you just have to "do the right thing" is garbage.