Wednesday was a big day. It marked the first true convergence of political action and the internet in America. As millions of people learned about SOPA/PIPA after visiting Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, or any of the sites that went dark in protest of the internet censorship bills, none of the Republican candidates other than Ron Paul used the opportunity to denounce and oppose them.

These bills are not clear-cut along party lines but the sudden evacuation of 16 Republican supporters in the Senate versus 2 Democrat supporters is a good indicator that the increased government regulation leans to the left. For Paul to be the only candidate to take advantage of the press that a simple Tweet would bring leaves only 3 possible reasons:

1. The other candidates are stupid for missing a clear opportunity to share in the overwhelming voice of the people
2. The other candidates have already been bought by Hollywood and cannot risk losing future campaign dollars
3. Both

President Obama has already come out against them. He knows that the passage of the bills in their current state would be political suicide; in fact, his staff recognized it before most in Washington and acted ahead of time with their statement of opposition.

Where is the opposition from the GOP presidential candidates? Is it so bad to agree with Obama that they felt it best to avoid the issue altogether? No. The only real conclusion is that they’re hoping the issue will disappear without them declaring one way or another.