Why politicians ignore tech

by David Holtzman

barackclinton.jpg
CNET makes a good point today--The candidates for US President are being surprisingly quiet on tech issues like Net Neutrality and privacy.

I was CTO for Senator Bayh's AllAmericaPac and fledgling campaign last year and ran into similar lack of political concern. Legislatively, the staffers are all over issues like Net Neutrality, but the political flacks were surprisingly disinterested (the campaign manager aside).

I was not really sure why then and I'm not really sure now. I can offer some possibilities, however.


  1. Tech issues don't resonate with the masses
  2. Supporting things like privacy piss off big companies, hurting contributions
  3. Politicos and their staffers don't understand tech issues

I suspect that the latter is the real reason. So, to all you techies out there, let's keep an eye on these guys, shall we?

Posted on April 27, 2007

1 Comment
Politics


I think it is dangerous for politicians to talk about tech stuff. When they try the media starts accusing them of inventing the internet.

Posted by mikemccaffrey on April 27, 2007

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