4/4
The Left offers no equivalent vision. It has been increasingly seen as the side of senescence, stagnation, and decay—typified, of course, in President Biden. Biden’s departure from the race may offer the Left a chance to make a new start, but that remains to be seen.What had been abundantly clear, before the president’s withdrawal announcement, was thestark contrast in public perceptions of Biden and Trumpfollowing Biden’s disastrous debate performanceand Trump’s triumphant response to the assassination attempt. True, optimism and dynamism aren’t inherently right-wing; Obama’s first campaign rode on a spirited vision of hope and change, and tech leaders responded accordingly by largely supporting him. But unlike the Obama administration, the Biden-Harris administration offered not grand visions but only irritable mental gestures.The spirit of ambition is fully on the right; the tech industry has adjusted its politics accordingly.
The shift extends to each side’s approach to governance.Consider another chic leftist cause, one with major effects on organizational competence: DEI.Many technologists who were drawn to the industry by its promises of breaking through stale conventions and toppling lazy corporate giants have found themselves instead subjected to corporate loyalty oaths, ridiculous HR regulations,and promotions of patently unqualified employees. A right-wing tech industry offers something different. For example, last month, the startup Scale AI, whose team includes former Trump officialMichael Kratsios, announced an alternative “merit, excellence, and intelligence” (MEI) hiring policy, earning the applause of many right-adjacent tech leaders. (Kratsios and Solana are both on the board of our organization.) Similarly,the hope of reversing modernity’s fertility collapse unites more conventional conservatives, anxious to revive civilization, with pro-natalist technologistsseeking the next audacious challenge,in common cause against the Left’s apocalyptic climate visions. In deciding between the party of conformity and pessimism and the party of verve and achievement, many in tech see an easy choice.
The tech industry is undergoing an “availability cascade.”That is, arapid shift in people’s professed beliefsis underway, as each person’s public disclosure of his views increases the acceptability, and therefore the likelihood, of the next person’s like-minded disclosure.No one wants to be the first to out himself as a Republican. But once a few people signal that it’s okay to admit it, others suddenly realize that they can come out, too. Thus Sacks could append his recent catalog of pro-Trump technologists with the invitation, “Come on in, the water’s warm,” knowing that the very publishing of that list is likely to make the list grow.
With Trump favored (at least for now) to win the election, one might charge tech figures with betting on the strong horse. But the deeper alignment between theambitions and élan of the tech industry and a newly galvanized GOP suggest that Silicon Valley will be an increasingly supportive friend of the Right in the years ahead. Just look at Politico’s recent article on “The Seven Thinkers and Groups That Have Shaped JD Vance’s Unusual Worldview,” where the affinity is hiding in plain sight.The majority of thinkers listed had one thing in common: they’re Californians.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/tech-for-trump