
Ask HN: How can tech companies promote a socially liberal government - thro1237
Tech companies in general are supportive of socially liberal policies (Abortion rights, LGBT rights, etc). How can they promote such views in the government? One way I can think of is to open more offices in swing states. As their employees tend to be more socially liberal, this will help elect more liberal candidates in the government? Any other ideas?
======
joeclark77
IMHO the pretension by coastal billionaires that they are the "elites" who
know what's good for us better than we do ourselves, is part of what the
people on Twitter are calling #HowYouGotTrump. Google, for example, usually
does one of their cute special-edition homepage graphics on every obscure
Muslim holiday and the birthdays of famous Communists, but rarely ever
celebrates Independence Day or Easter. Nice way to show how much contempt you
have for a large segment of your customers, Google!

I would suggest that founders be a bit more respectful of their employees' and
customers' diverse opinions. If you treat people with respect, they might just
be willing to listen to what you have to say.

------
lordCarbonFiber
History lesson: due to a law passed in 1929[0] the size of the House of
Representatives is capped. Because states can't have less than one house
member this means a vote in the midwest can be worth up to 3x a vote on the
coast. Further compounding this issue, a state's electoral college vote count
is equal to it's total congress members (2 senate + house) so that swings the
pendulum even further toward the low population states.

This is how, in 2016, despite more actual people voting democrat in the
president, house, and senate races, the party lost control of all three. [1]

Allow the total members in the house to expand so all districts have more
equal members, and we can finally stop bending over backwards for a minority
of citizens who insist we stay socially and economically in the 1950s.

[0][http://history.house.gov/Historical-
Highlights/1901-1950/The...](http://history.house.gov/Historical-
Highlights/1901-1950/The-Permanent-Apportionment-Act-of-1929/)
[1][http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/11/10/democrats-
won-popular-vote-senate-too/93598998/)

------
PaulHoule
Note your definition of socially liberal does not mention anything having to
do with economic inequality, how do you feel about that?

The "locate offices in the swing states" answer is about the only one that can
work given the structure of voting at a national level. Economic despair,
desperation, drug addiction and all that in the heartland caused by Adam Smith
"liberal" policies drive people to vote Republican as the Democrats don't
offer an alternative. That's what's the matter with Kansas.

Also any kind of "brain drain" from the middle of the country to New York and
California disempowers those who move politically. The tech industry has to
stop siding with Comcast and Verizon and stop making excuses against rolling
our sleeves up and getting rural broadband in.

~~~
lordCarbonFiber
I feel like you haven't spent much time in rural America. As someone who grew
up in South Carolina, it's not someplace you want to be. No one opens offices
in the heartland because the cheap land doesn't offset the difficulty in
attracting talent (at least for software where office costs even in SF or NYC
are dwarfed by personal costs). Intelligent people want to congregate, and the
regressive policies of the American south and midwest (anti lgbt, anti women's
rights, rampant racism, religious cultism, and strong currents of anti-
intellectualism) give people no reason to reject the call to shinnier shores.
At this point the only thing that can save these communities are universal
basic income and you know the republicans they insist on electing won't
provide that.

Repeal the House member cap passed in 1912 and let the representatives
actually proportionally represent the population (and the Electoral college
too) and all of the social issues caused by a gross minority of backwater
states goes away.

------
fosco
Create a Corporate Congress. businesses have ideals and values, and often are
forced to support the majority because it is the majority that is spending
their money at that business and giving them power in the first place. with
all of the downsides of a corporate congress, I see this happening especially
with more deregulation [0] occuring... there is an opportunity growing for
corporations to step in and lead the way. Encourage people to spend money at
companies who values they support.

[0] [https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-
office/2017/01/30/presi...](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-
office/2017/01/30/presidential-executive-order-reducing-regulation-and-
controlling)

------
informatimago
Companies should not promote any such view in the government.

The government is by the people for the people. Only human beings should have
any voice in the government affairs, and since we're assumedly in a democracy,
with one man one voice!

Therefore companies meddling with government affairs and lobbying should be
disbanded immediately.

~~~
stephancoral
But people...run corporations! And since we live in a country has decided that
corporations are persons and have rights to free speech and participation in
the political realm, why not use this privilege to advance civil rights?

------
orange_county
Companies can start lobbying and donating money to politicians who align their
views with theirs.

That's how it is usually done.

------
spcelzrd
Directly support candidates and political parties that reflect their views.

There are two parties in the US: Fascist and anti-Fascist. The anti-Fascists
are doing a sorry, spineless job. But at least they're not writing bigoted
laws.

