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Most of the bad press seems to be FUD against Keystone XL which works because of the rich California liberals who don't care much about energy prices. Is the le
by jacoblyles 13y ago
Most of the bad press seems to be FUD against Keystone XL which works because of the rich California liberals who don't care much about energy prices. Is the lesson that no Silicon Valley PAC can ever come close to a conservative cause?
- HistoryInAction 13y agoRight, most of the bad non-tech press seems like FUD. Liberals organizations used the controversy to build their email lists and raise money—that's how the system works. But the issue was not the liberal anger. I assume that was reasonably expected and included in the calculus of making the ad strategy. What wasn't expected was how such a proudly political strategy in the name of tech caused such a rationalist backlash against the 'crooked, dirty, corrupt' nature of the political system on the part of tech. Folks like Spolsky, Khosla, Miller—they weren't angry because of Keystone. They were angry because the ads didn't even bother to make the case for immigration reform. That we didn't have an argument capable of winning people over, so don't even try. That pissed people off, from what I can tell.
- chalst 13y agoI think the lesson is that, while you can have a bipartisan lobbying outfit, a bipartisan lobbying outfit that sweetens some of its membership with partisan campaigning against the views other members is going to land itself in trouble.