... you think the reaction would be substantially different if the Bush administration seriously proposed this? Same script, different actors. The best measure of how much of our political arena our politicians aren't actually serious about is which opinions flip 180 when control passes from the demopublicans to the republicrats. "Hey, remember how we were against the idea of the Internet being controlled by the government? Now it's peachy keen!" "Remember how all that spending was like, terrible last year? Now it's our turn and we have a moral imperative to spend! Wheee!"
(And just to be clear, no, neither of those are targeted at one party in particular.)
It's interesting, in just about every successful organization I've been a part of, the defining factor has been trust. Communities that trust their members tend to thrive; those who assume their members are out to screw them tend to get screwed.
(And just to be clear, no, neither of those are targeted at one party in particular.)