Net neutrality was the biggest tech issue of the year. But nobody campaigned on it.

[Commentary] I argued that the expanding role of technology in people's daily lives has made tech policy a more relevant and viable campaign issue in the 21st century election cycle. Looking back now on this midterm cycle, however, it's clear that I was completely, totally off-base. Flat-out wrong, even.

Take net neutrality -- arguably the biggest, baddest tech issue of the year. More than the Comcast merger, more than National Security Agency surveillance, more than pretty much any other item on the tech policy agenda, net neutrality drove people to the barricades. In absolute terms, net neutrality produced a staggering response from the public. The Federal Communications Commission got a record-setting 3.9 million comments from Americans who felt, at some level, that the future of the Internet was at stake. But compared to other election issues, net neutrality barely registered on the candidates' scales.

Why?

• Net neutrality is primarily an issue for the executive branch, not Congress.
• The public response to net neutrality has mostly been the result of Internet organizing -- which, by definition, involves people who are spread out and not a cohesive political actor.
• And because Internet users skew younger, and younger people aren't very politically engaged, it's not crazy to think that net neutrality activists might wield less power at the ballot box more generally compared to their older peers from the outset.