The MAGA-tech situationship
I have been reporting in Washington for nearly six years, and on politics for over a decade, and Iave attended more corporate-sponsored policy events (and tend to nod off during them) than I can remember. Iave also reported on the gradual disintegration of reality caused by the rise of MAGA, so I thought my tolerance for confusing political phenomena was pretty high. But never in my life did I think I would see Steve Bannon sitting onstage in his beat-up barn jacket next to former Consumer Finance and Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra, a notable progressive introduced as aa protege of Sen. Elizabeth Warren,a with the two of them earnestly discussing the topic: aare techno-optimism and populism incompatible?aA
Not that the topic was out of left field per se a the tech right and the populist right are in an all-out war, and itas roiling the Trump administration. But this was a visual pairing that reduced me to sending a photo of the stage with the caption awhat if horseshoe theory, but reala to several sources.
Bannonas appearance at Y Combinatoras Little Tech Summit earlier this month was a surprise a his timeslot had been buried in the schedule …