How did the Democrats Lose Silicon Valley? Should They Try to Get it Back?

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Institute of Politics invite you to a discussion on How did the Democrats Lose Silicon Valley, examining Big Tech’s changing political dynamics.

In 2011, President Obama asked how government could help Silicon Valley and nearly all of theseemed to back Democrats. But by the beginning of Trump’s second term, many powerful Silicon Valley elites — such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — had moved away from the Democratic Party, while others such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen strongly support President Trump and the MAGA movement. With their backing came not only massive funding for political causes, but also greater control over both traditional and digital media platforms. Can the Democratic Party succeed with some of the largest companies on earth opposed to it? Could the Democrats have preserved their alliance with Silicon Valley by, for example, adopting an “abundance” agenda and moderating its regulatory and anti-monopolist ambitions? Or, are “accelerationist” and other ideological commitments of these Silicon Valley elites incompatible with core Democratic Party principles? In this discussion, Archon Fung will moderate a conversation with Van Jones about the past and future relationship of democracy to US technology elites.

Speakers:

• Van Jones, CNN Host; Founder of DreamMachine.org and RAPPORT.co
• Archon Fung (Moderator), Director, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

In conjunction with the online event, this discussion will be livestreamed in-person in the Ash Center’s Seminar Room 225 for Harvard ID holders. Pizza will be served.

This event is co-sponsored by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.