Response and Clarification to our Choosing of Paul Ryan

 

Today, the Atlantic Wire ran an article entitled “Reddit Users are Fighting Over Fighting Paul Ryan“, which suggests there is a heavy divide in the ranks OPR’s current mission.

While Simpson’s article mentions two quotes by Redditors (cbs5090 and hutch1973), the two statements are not terribly significant to the discussion at hand. In fact, both comments received negative reactions and were generally dismissed on the whole. One of the great things about the Reddit community is that anyone can speak their mind freely. This does not mean, however, that every comment holds the same amount of weight and merit.

Though the initial discussions within the movement suggested a campaign against a sponsor or co-sponsor of SOPA, it was not the only criteria. The fact that Mr. Ryan was not sponsoring the bill became apparent to OPR in the early stages of formation. Congressman Ryan was chosen for several reasons that we felt were strategic to our goals, and we stand fully behind our decision. These factors, coupled with the ambiguity of his stance on SOPA, made him a viable candidate for our first campaign.

We also want to emphasize Ryan’s role in helping pass the National Defense Authorization Act, which we have outlined as one of our main points of contention with the Mr. Ryan. There has been very little mentioned about NDAA in the articles published, and hope to see this issue address in the future. We remain firm in our stance against this bill and Congressman Ryan’s vote.

We hope that this serves to clarify any points of confusion.

Thank you,

The OPR Team