How Silicon Valley went from Republican to Democrat | Margaret O’Mara

Give yourself the gift of knowledge — subscribe to Big Think Edge: http://bit.ly/bigthinkedge Silicon Valley started as a Republican stronghold. How did it turn so liberal? - From its inception right up until the 1980s, Silicon Valley, and particularly its leaders, were Republican leaning. Dave Packard, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard, was Richard Nixon's deputy secretary of defense. - This trend changes in the 1990s, when the techie generation who came of age during the Vietnam War and Watergate represent a more cynical and liberal class of leaders. In 1984, Steve Jobs admitted he'd never voted. - In the late '80s and '90s, politicians like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Newt Gingrich start sitting down and talking with futurists, supercomputing specialists, and Turing Prize winners to understand how this world is evolving and how the innovative energy Silicon Valley could be harnessed to bring America into the 21st century. Margaret O’Mara is the author of "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America." (https://amzn.to/2MiUSrg) She is a professor of history at the University of Washington, where she writes and teaches about the history of U.S. politics, the growth of the high-tech economy, and the connections between the two. https://ift.tt/2IQF1gR If you're interested in licensing this or any other Big Think clip for commercial or private use, contact our licensing partner Executive Interviews:https://ift.tt/2KwKABP Read more here: https://ift.tt/2yYi3i3 Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://ift.tt/1qJMX5g Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink