I would say there are few dominant strands of political views in Silicon Valley: * "Liberaltarian" (http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/liberaltarians

I would say there are few dominant strands of political views in Silicon Valley: * "Liberaltarian" (http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/liberaltarians http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/liberaltarians). Generally libertarian views (support for free markets, drug de-criminalization, gay rights, right to bear arms, open borders, etc...) but where views on social issues (namely basic civil liberties, gay rights, drug de-criminalization, open borders) trump (by far) the economic issues. Most of these folks also don't subscribe to Randian/Nietzschean "virtue of selfishness" so given a candidate whose economic policies might benefit them but who opposes gay rights and immigration, they'll vote for his opponents even if they happen to be straight and native-born. * Conventional style liberalism, but with heavier focus on civil liberties and technology. Zoe Logfren is probably great example of candidate that appeals heavily to this group. * Bloomberg-style centrism: some degree of social liberalism (particularly in regards to gay rights, abortion), moderate-to-center-right economic views (mainly dictated by self-interest), but strong opposition to personal liberty-issues that are perceived to have social costs (e.g., drug de-criminalization, right to bear arms). This is generally common with older folks, likely the ones that supported Reagan and Nixon earlier. Generally these are also the view of many California republicans (e.g., Meg Whitman) but also a significant chunk of Democrats. Given national republican party has now deviated from significantly from this view (with big factions now being religious right, Tea Party, and some libertarian-leaning folks), again there's a tendency to vote democratic on national level. * Actual libertarians tends to be somewhat more common than in the rest of the country, but again there's a tendency for people to come to libertarian views from a more academic point of view (study of economics, philosophy, etc...) as opposed to from reading Atlas Shrugged. So yes, if you define libertarian as Objectivist (a view that goes far beyond libertarianism -- the idea that poor deserve to be poor and do not deserve even voluntary charity, as opposed to the idea that economic planning hurts the poor more than it helps), then there's only few libertarians in Silicon Valley. If you use a more open-minded definition (opposition to economic planning and support for personal liberties) the picture changes a bit.