by Edward Ring
Although the Democratic Party in America relies on millions of college-educated liberals, it depends on two additional sources of political power. Losing any of them could have a disastrous impact on the party’s ability to win elections. The first are America’s financial elites, providing financial and institutional support. The second is America’s low-income minority communities. Joel Kotkinan urban studies fellow at Chapman University in California, described the relationship between the two groups as “up-down“coalition.
The vigorous is straightforward: American elites and the politicians they control manipulate the economy to deny upward mobility to low-income communities. They pass laws that make it nearly impossible to run a tiny business, while regulating major industries – housing, mining, timber, oil and gas drilling and refining, and agriculture – that the cost of living puts solvency out of reach for low-income households. They then award government benefits to low-income households to cover their shortfalls, and do so in exchange for votes.
This system has been perfected in California, a state with millions of college-educated liberals, staggering wealth, and the nation’s highest percentage of people living in poverty. In all three cases, the narrative justifying this system is consistent: we must do everything we can to save the planet from the climate crisis, we must do everything we can to protect vulnerable populations from discrimination, and of course, in the newer variant, we must do whatever it takes to stop President Trump and his minions from destroying democracy.
The irony would be humorous if it weren’t so destructive. If anywhere in the United States democracy has been destroyed, it is California, where the Democratic Party controls 75 percent. seats in the State Senate75 percent seats in the State Assemblyand takes each state elected positionincluding the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, comptroller, treasurer, insurance commissioner, and state superintendent of public instruction. Democrats maintained this so-called the trifecta of state political power in California for the last 15 years.
At the same time, nine of ten largest cities in California they have a Democrat mayor and a Democrat majority on the city council. The same applies every direction county able. The Democrats have locked down the state. California voters will likely approve the decision in November Proposition 50redistricting plan aimed at raise Democratic participation California’s congressional seats from 83 percent (43 of 52) to 92 percent (48 of 52). “Yes” to 50 elites, led by Governor Newsom, have already done so raised over $90 million to conduct an advertising campaign at the saturation level. The rhetoric is predictable and finds fertile ground in California’s completely indoctrinated electorate: Stop Trump. Stop the fascists.
But to repeat the aged cliché, but often true, it’s always darkest before the dawn. Millions of Californians have been through this with Democrats. These include persecuted tiny business owners, a shrinking but still significant middle class, and leaders and workers in every industry in the state who are making at least a scratch in the ground. And now a up-to-date faction is rejecting Democratic policies: Silicon Valley.
It would be premature to say that Silicon Valley has leveled off again, but the situation is changing rapidly. Even before Trump won in 2024, several Silicon Valley moguls decided they would rather aid define and strengthen the MAGA movement than support a woke alternative. There are billionaires among them Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiyaand, of course, Elon Musk.
Since the election, the Valley has continued to move away from Democrats. Tech billionaire Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle and Trump supporter, has now controlling stake in CBS. As part of the deal, Ellison was hired Bari Weiss is the up-to-date editor-in-chief from CBS News. Weiss, who was the co-founder Free press after leaving the New York Times in disgust at its censorship of right-wing voices, it may not completely correct CBS’s biased reporting. But CBS employees are not ecstatic with the decision, which may be a sign of upcoming changes.
Ellison wasn’t done yet. He is ready to take over a majority share in the company restructured TikTok and it is is making moves on CNN. These events promise to ease media bias in favor of the Democratic Party, which could outweigh the impact of Musk’s February 2022 takeover of Twitter.
There is another Democrat defector who threatens their hegemony over Silicon Valley, viz Mark BenioffFounder of Salesforce. In recent New York Times In the article, Benioff was described as a “kind-hearted billionaire” who, among other things, reports the Times.“kindness remains, but liberal tendencies do not.” Benioff is now on record as a sturdy supporter of President Trump and even recommended the deployment of National Guard troops to San Francisco. The Times further notes that Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently praised the president.
Mark Benioff’s defection marks a seismic change in the political landscape of Silicon Valley. This is not someone whose liberal faith can be easily distorted or discredited. This is a man who has donated over a billion dollars to charities focusing on homelessness, health care and environmental issues. That someone of his stature among liberal Democrats would unequivocally support President Trump is an astonishing development.
While Benioff’s defection may reflect a up-to-date and welcome way for results-oriented liberals to abandon aged beliefs in favor of up-to-date ways of governing civil society, there are also pragmatic considerations behind the defections. In particular, the recognition by emerging AI vendors and server farm builders that Democratic policies, and California policies in particular, have caused energy shortages.
An example of the frustration felt by these Democratic-leaning, energy-hungry tech moguls is the latest bestseller “Abundance“, published earlier this year by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The authors, both Democrats, provided a comprehensive and scathing review of everything that is wrong with Democratic politics. They condemn what they describe as a culture of process over production and call for massive deregulation. The authors ultimately failed to choose solutions because, unsurprisingly, they still cling to Democratic piety: single-family homes are unsustainable economic expansion, oil and gas pose an existential threat to the planet, and immense water projects leave an unacceptable environmental footprint. But Klein and Thompson are right about the regulations that are stifling energy development in California.
It’s reasonable to assume that California’s tech titans will embrace the first half of the book’s message: Abundancesupporting politicians who will finally begin to dismantle California’s overhauled regulatory apparatus. It’s also reasonable to assume that if they can’t get enough energy to power their server farms using “renewable” energy, they’ll turn to whatever the next best source is: nuclear power and ultra-clean, ultra-efficient natural gas.
Without a monolithic Silicon Valley supporting Democrats, the overall structure that ensures their dominance in California could collapse. If a few dozen Silicon Valley billionaires believe that Republicans, including the president, have better policy solutions than Democrats, they will have enough money to oppose any other special interests of the state, including the all-powerful public sector unions that are almost 100% committed to Democrats. These runaway billionaires will offer overwhelming financial resources to candidates committed to changing California’s legislative priorities on everything – energy, water, housing, crime, homelessness and education – and will buy media companies that deliver narratives and shape public sentiment.
The top-bottom coalition that Democrats rely on to give them a majority in America and a majority in California is falling apart. Low-income and minority voters who have traditionally bought what Democrats are selling are losing patience as prices continue to rise, crime and homelessness rates remain too high, and public schools continue to fail their children. But now the elites at the top are changing the message. New voices and up-to-date ideas are gaining popularity.
Republicans who wrote California off might want to take another look. Silicon Valley has brought wonderful technological changes. Now Silicon Valley can do the same with politics, breaking down the top-bottom coalition, exposing its cynical essence, and finally holding it accountable.
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Edward Ring is a senior fellow at the Center for American Greatness. He is also director of water and energy policy at the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. Ring is the author of Fixing California: Abundance, Pragmatism, Optimism (2021) and The Abundance Choice: Our Fight for More Water in California (2022).
“Redwood City” photo by Pi CC3.0.
