Washington DC Vs. Silicon Valley: Who Shall Rule in the Decades Ahead?

Look back at the 1990s and what do you see? A decade of unparalleled prosperity, broadly enjoyed more than any boom of the past. A burst of entrepreneurial zeal unmatched in history. The smashing of socialist dystopias and the discrediting of planned economies. And a flowering of free market capitalism not seen since the Industrial Revolution.

Why? Because the engineers have sprinted ahead and the politicians can't keep up. Behold the Internet. We built it and the world came, creating a cornucopia of profoundly transforming products and services.

Behold the Clinton Administration and the 106th Congress. What a sorry, unproductive, shameful, irrelevant bunch of windbags. What good fortune that at this pivotal moment the feuding parasites have so thoroughly crippled each other that they've dealt themselves out of the game.

Look ahead into the next century. Two paths lie ahead. We can continue to prosper, advance, and spread the blessings of technology and liberty to the darkest corners of the earth, leaving the political class behind as the marginalized relic of a former age. Or, we can let the politicians catch up, strangling the best and the brightest with incessant redistributionists schemes, playing one special interest off against another, all making common cause with global bureaucrats trying to escape the decline of national sovereignty by concocting a one-world government, the final refuge of scoundrels who yearn to rule.

Work hard for the former. Don't pay for the latter.

Few concepts can be simpler. Yet our own industry leaders are selling us out. In their lust for personal aggrandizement, some of our most successful investors and entrepreneurs are turning their fortunes over to the very parasites that would infect the goose that lays the golden egg.

One can only guess at their true motives, but in keeping with the times they do have a Web site where you can witness their debasement for yourself. It's www.technet.org, home page for the Technology Network, a collection of millionaires with more money than brains. Arguing for constructive engagement, TechNet provides one-stop-shopping for Washington carpetbaggers out to separate Silicon Valley fools from their money.

Speaking of which, how is Microsoft responding to Washington's divide-and-conquer agenda? By giving money to politicians. Notwithstanding the outcome of the antitrust suit, and regardless of your own personal views on this matter, Washington has already won. Bill Gates opened his wallet, showering contributions on his tormentors thinking they might leave him alone.

Bill, don't be an imbecile. Stop writing checks. That's exactly what your assailants want. The money you are funneling into the political system is no different than the protection money the Mafia demands from shopkeepers in return for not breaking their windows. And, just like the Mafia, the politicians will never go away. Your money will only whet their appetite for more.

Oddly enough, it is the most cunning, ruthless, amoral industry executives who have figured out that paying off politicians is a fool's game. Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin has unilaterally decided that his company will stop making soft-money contributions to political parties. Was it because of his selfless devotion to campaign finance reform? Was he wracked by pangs of conscience over the perversion of democracy? No. He correctly figured he wasn't getting his money's worth. You can buy as many politicians as you want but they don't stay bought. In a system increasingly mired in gridlock, that's a bad bargain. Better to just walk away.

There is a valuable lesson here. We may not all be rich, but we can all certainly walk away. Fewer than half the eligible voters in this country participated in the last presidential election. This is not a sign of apathy; it is a triumph of reason. If it matters little which party prevails and your vote can't possibly determine the outcome, how do you benefit by voting? If you are a heartfelt supporter of a particular candidate, by all means exercise your franchise. But holding your nose and picking the lesser of tweedle dum and tweedle dee is an insult to the founders. As we enter the first election year of the new century, it is far better to focus on building a better future with your own two hands than to squander your moral sanction by bestowing mandates on leeches.