I may be naive, but instead of government indiscriminately destroying tech companies based on political vendetta & Tucker Carlson’s rants, I’d rather gov’t collaboratively harness tech innovation to modernize itself & its oversight capabilities. Tech should be a US strength.
I mean, yes—Big Tech isn’t perfect. It does bad things largely because it’s making decisions of first impression that only the product designers at these companies understand. Government should catch up and participate.
But, Tech has also literally changed the world in 5 years.
There’s also a huge NatSec factor for letting our tech sector continue to do it’s thing. The global leader of the next century will be the country with the deepest tech capabilities—& Silicon Valley is our ace in the hole. It has both scale & dynamism if we preserve it & use it.
I mean, seriously! Do you really think Josh Hawley should be dictating the terms of our tech sector development over the next ten years?!
That guy can’t even put himself on the right side of a violent attack on our Capitol.
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🧵 Today, a grassroots group I’m part of convened an online rally to support Liz Cheney after our open letter collected nearly 4k signatures. A member of Congress, 3 former members, & ~500 people attended.
And aside from our $50 Zoom license, we didn’t spend a single $ to do it.
We have no paid staff. A handful of people—all of whom either have full-time jobs outside of politics or are full-time students—sacrificed their time, sweat, & energy to make it happen. We don’t do graphic design, we don’t have a social media team—but it came together.
As a result of this volunteer model, we didn’t have to toe any lines. We didn’t have to pause 5 seconds to sell you a mug for liberal tears. We didn’t have to cook up incendiary things to say. We just talked as citizens about the principles we think should guide this country.
DeSantis strikes me as someone I could’ve supported if he hadn’t jumped headfirst into the crazy pool to win votes. His CPAC speech was more serious & substantive than the others. But he still ignores the big, inconvenient truths that need to be spoken. He’s still a follower.
If you’re on the CPAC stage this week and you don’t have at least one line that the crowd boos or jeers you for, you aren’t being a leader. You’re just hankering for applause and you’ll say anything to get it.
Good grief. This is a real thing that actually happened. This is what I’m talking about. If you jump in the pool like this, there’s no getting out.
“I’m still a Republican and agreed with certain of Trump’s policies, but think he is a morally bankrupt man and unfit to be President” isn’t a view that you can hold.
The GOP is saying you aren’t a Republican. You can’t be. It doesn’t want us if we don’t bow.
We should leave.
If this is your view, it is wish-casting of the worst kind to insist that we still have a place in our old Party. We don’t. And the longer we stick around pretending that we do, the more we empower Trumpism.
We have argued for change. We have tried. They aren’t listening.
So, I’m a conservative. I believe in the Constitution and the rule of law. I believe life begins at conception. I believe in a limited, effective government and the right to bear arms responsibly. I believe in moral leadership.
You’ll hear a lot from the CPAC stage the next few days, but it won’t remotely resemble conservatism.
Conservatism, properly practiced, doesn’t propagate conspiracy theories about stolen elections; it doesn’t make exceptions to the Constitution; it doesn’t bow to one man.
CPAC should just be honest about what it is now and stop feigning any allegiance to ideas or principles. It exists as an outlet for politicians and grift merchants to peddle their Trumpist wares.
Schlapp charges anywhere from $330 to $2500 per head & takes a big cut for himself.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to pretend everything’s fine; that Jan 6 wasn’t a product of lies; that the GOP cares about serious debate. We can lead instead.
If even just 5% of the GOP bolts, it will never win the presidency or the Senate. That would debilitate the party. The rump would only radicalize faster as the MTG slice of the GOP grew its share & marginalized the party.
More will bolt if they have something to bolt towards.
The question for the principled lane is: can we raise enough money and get enough good people to run under an entirely new party banner by 2022 in a way that actually convinces enough voters to break party ranks?
Or are we better off trying to co-opt the GOP with our own banner?
If Trump forms the Patriot Party, he makes things really easy for us—because we’re the only other faction of the center-right with a strong view as to where it should go. Everyone else is just following/positioning.
The problem with the “Vote Loeffler for divided government” argument isn’t the divided government part. It’s the Loeffler part.
The fact that seemingly conservative ends increasingly require playing footsie with a QAnon-curious candidate is a damning indictment of the GOP.
I mean, come on. It’s pretty obvious the GOP is entirely bereft of leaders when it can’t even muster a Republican Senate nominee with enough spine & common sense to just color somewhat inside the lines and win *Georgia* by 8 points. These shouldn’t be close seats.
This is actually a potential starting point of post-Trump agreement between principled conservatives and Trump’s former supporters: the GOP in its current form needs to be completely replaced.