Republicans are ready for their comeback as Net freedom fighters.

Once champions of the Internets Wild West, a re-envisioned movement has left them behind. Now the GOP is digging in its spurs as it seeks to rebrand a party viewed as technology illiterate and gain redemption for backing much maligned anti-piracy legislation.

Its also a convenient sounding board for just about everything else.

Internet freedom now gets linked to tax bans, United Nations treaties and small government. Lawmakers have tied the term to everything from Justice Department investigations to American pride. Reinvigorated by the revolt of a region, Web rights have gone on to embody a much broader political agenda.

People use it for their own purposes, said Gigi Sohn, co-founder of Public Knowledge, an organization that pushes for open Internet. Republicans especially, she said, take it to mean absolutely no government, consumer competition protection and no regulation whatsoever.

Lawmakers see a born fit.

The Republican Party is a natural for Internet freedom, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), one of the most vocal GOP online rights supporters, told POLITICO.

He noted that it wasnt the Democrats whose campaigns have become a wizardry of data analysis and online resources but the GOP that first established an Internet freedom platform.

Granted, tech advocates had trouble swallowing the partys opposition to net neutrality standards. And Democrats unleashed their platform just days after.

But as society weighs new questions of privacy and access, the resurging online freedom talk has made for an effective Republican Party tool.

Continued here:

GOP looks to be net freedom fighters