Silence Of The Valley Obamacons

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The question of whether Obama is a big-state liberal or economic centrist seems to be resolved; it’s the former.

Silence Of The Valley Obamacons

Libertarians (the capital “L” variety) like to map their belief set by something called the Nolan Chart, a quadrant. One axis on the quadrant divides traditional political liberals and conservatives. The other axis divides those who desire freedom from the state from those who want a bigger state.

Silicon Valley, where I live, is home to both political liberals and conservatives–more liberals of late, but not by a huge margin. The lopsidedness occurs on the freedom-statist divide. An overwhelming majority of Valley residents would place themselves on the freedom side and against the state. This should not surprise anyone. Silicon Valley is a land of immigrants, both foreign and from other American states. What draws people to Silicon Valley is the freedom to go out and commit industrial revolution and make the future.

Thus it was always odd that Silicon Valley voted for the most statist-inclined presidential candidate since FDR. Silicon Valley fell in love with Barack Obama. His youth and multicultural cool, along with the Web superiority of his presidential campaign, had Silicon Valley going googly for Obama.

In the eyes of Silicon Valley, Obama was like the Apple Macintosh. John McCain was like Windows.

Now comes the reckoning. Obama may be the coolest guy ever to hold the office of U.S. president. He may be the personification of an Apple Mac, iPod and iPhone. But this week Obama proved he is a big-state liberal, through and through.

My Silicon Valley friends who supported Obama are weirdly silent about this. I suspect they are in denial, still hoping for the closet libertarian Obama to emerge. Throughout the 2008 campaign, Silicon Valley Obama voters would tell me that Obama was really an economic centrist. Forget his liberal Senate record and Saul Alinsky-conditioned career as a community organizer. Forget the Chicago-style thug politics. That was in the past. Obama did what he had to do to rise. Once in the Oval Office, Obama will really govern more like John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton or Tony Blair.

Say it enough times, and you can almost believe it. Well, sorry about that, you Obamacons. You just got thrown under the bus.

The $790 billion stimulus headed for Obama’s desk is statist. It is also backward looking. Sure, there are some forward-looking initiatives, such as a few billion for broadband. But the bill is overwhelmed by “shovel-ready” projects aimed at school building improvement, road repair and so forth, and by bailouts to profligate state governments.

Very disturbingly, the bill has the stench of protectionism in it. This is antithetical to the interests of trade-happy Silicon Valley.

It’s time for Silicon Valley Obama supporters to step up and make themselves heard. John Doerr, Eric Schmidt, Marc Andreessen–you did not get the candidate you voted for! He is off to a catastrophic start on economic issues. Obama will not listen to the likes of me. But he will listen to you. So start talking.

Post your comments below. The question of whether Obama is a big-state liberal or economic centrist seems to be resolved; it’s the former. Is there any chance Obama will change? Why were so many pro-business, pro-technology Obama voters fooled during the campaign? Why have Obama’s biggest Silicon Valley supporters been silent on the statist, backward-looking stimulus package?

Fire away.

http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules/