Asked on the Bill Marr show this weekend why all these folks from Silicon Valley are backing Trump, Pete Buttigieg said “I think it's a profound contradiction, but maybe it's not that complicated. I know there are a lot of folks who say, ‘What's going on with these Silicon Valley folks veering into Trump world with JD Vance, and backing Trump? What are they thinking? Silicon Valley’s supposed to care about Climate; pro science and rational and libertarian— and normally libertarians don’t like authoritarians. What’s up with that?’ We've made it way too complicated. It's super simple. These are very rich men who have decided to back the Republican party that tends to do good things for very rich men.”
Buttigieg is a neo-liberal kind of Democrat so he certainly knows that explanation is only half the story. The alignment of wealthy individuals and corporations with political parties isn’t as clear cut as it once was. Traditionally, it’s been true that big money, particularly from the business and corporate sectors, has supported the Republican Party, largely driven by the GOP's advocacy for lower taxes, deregulation, and other policies favorable to business interests and high-income earners. When Biden, who spent his decades in the Senate as a Joe Manchin-type conservative, promised wealthy Wall Street NeverTrumpers that “fundamentally nothing will change,” he know exactly who he was appealing to and he meant it.
Under Bill Clinton, Obama and Biden, the Democratic Party has adopted various neoliberal economic policies that have been as favorable to the interests of the very wealthy and their corporations as Republicans, including:
Free trade agreements, Clinton’s first legislative priority when he took over.
Policies that promote financial markets and technology sectors.
Moderate tax policies that, while aiming for redistribution, have not been in any way punitive for the wealthy.
For all the bullshit about what a fabulous, transformative president Biden has been… give me a break. He has accomplished pretty much nothing other than passing some spending bills. Sure, sure… better than Trump— but so is a pile of dog shit in the gutter. Did Biden raise the minimum wage? Did he strengthen Social Security or Medicare? Did he raise taxes on the super-rich? He didn’t do shit for the American people, unless you want to count some good foreign policy, like withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan and helping to finance Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression. And most Americans would be hard put to find either of them on a map or tell you why Biden deserves a good mark for doing that.
Wealthy people aren’t monolithic, and their support can be influenced by social and cultural issues. Many of them in sectors like technology and entertainment are socially liberal and support Democratic positions on issues such as climate change, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigration. Still, regardless of social policies, economic self-interest usually remains the single most powerful political motivator. The perception that Republican policies will be more beneficial for their financial bottom line drives support from wealthy individuals, including in Big Tech.
It's a minority voice in the Democratic camp, but "Tax the rich" is NEVER mentioned in the Republican camp. In fact "Decrease taxes on the rich" is seen as a panacea despite all the evidence that it doesn't make anything better except the bottom lines of those who got a tax break, while it makes a lot of things much worse.
... um... "economic self-interest"... DUH!!
When the rhetorical praise of the biden "agenda" (a lie) and how kamala will continue that, including raising taxes on the rich, what did you expect? Sure the rich know they own and operate the democrap party and they will NEVER do anything progressive... but just the ambient noise must bother them.