The problem with SOPA is that the vast, vast majority of non-technical moderates are completely unaware of it. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen this large of a disconnect between the tech community and "everyone else". If you don't believe me, next time you run to the supermarket or the drug store, just politely say to your cashier, "Excuse me, I was just wondering if you knew what SOPA is?"
It's only anecdotal counter-evidence, but my cousin, who's a non-technical owner of a kite surfing business, has expressed concern about SOPA on facebook. He doesn't normally post about anything political, but he's worried it will destroy the porn industry. The percentage of non-technicals concerned about SOPA is nonzero.
The problem with some of these things is, after a while, a universal assumption is developed: the assumption that people must know what you're talking about now.
Ask anyone about SOPA and they might now and be concerned, they might not. Ask someone about the act that has the real possibility of infringing on civil liberties in the name of corporate power, and you might get an open ear. You might not, or you might find someone who actually knows it but not by name.
It's like any *-gate scandal. Until it's historical fact, where you learn about it in reverse (what happened, to how it happened), you're not going to know about it unless you followed it from the start or read up.
Of course, the solution is to raise awareness as best you can, and educate people. Write to a tech blog or site and you're preaching to the choir; do that, or something more drastic, on a site focussed on an entirely unrelated demographic, and you might just get a few more people on your side. If you're Google or Facebook, then this could be the best gauge of consumer influence you can get.
