More or Less · Topics · Episode #167
Big Tech Suddenly Remembers the Democrats Exist
Clip from the full recording, 47:07–53:35 · download mp4 · watch at this point on YouTube
Jay Carney joins Ron Conway's effort to educate Democrats on AI as tech hedges its all-in Trump bet. Dave thinks the party is 'hopelessly lost,' and Sam explains why everyone's real wager is that the pendulum itself has broken.
Jess’s closing tech-politics read: the industry is waking up to needing Democrats in its corner on AI — Jay Carney (ex-Amazon policy) joining Ron Conway and SV Angel to educate/influence the party — because the companies that pivoted hard to Trump are looking down the road at investigations if control flips. She recalls how genuinely weird the original Silicon Valley Trump turn was (her instinct on the Marc-and-Ben endorsement scoop was ‘check your sources’; the story was right). Dave is bleak: the Democrats have been ‘hopelessly lost’ for years, everyone independent-minded he knows is looking for a new message and there isn’t one. Sam’s sharper frame: the entire current positioning is a bet that the pendulum has broken — that we’re in a runaway one-direction cycle. He doesn’t buy it: history is long, the railroads and WorldCom all went bankrupt, ‘this time is not different’ — but the detail everyone forgets is you have to sell, and ‘anyone who grew up emotionally as an investor is all about the buying, not the selling part.’ The segment dissolves into South Park wisdom — startup, sell out, bro down — with the pod locating 2026 ‘between sell out and bro down.’
Key points
- Jay Carney + Ron Conway + SV Angel are organizing to educate the Democratic Party on AI — tech hedging its Trump-era positioning.
- The motivation is defensive: investigations loom if Democrats regain control, and the hard-pivot companies know it.
- Dave: the Democrats are 'hopelessly lost' — independents are shopping for a new message that doesn't exist yet.
- Sam: everyone's real bet is that the pendulum has broken; his history says everything in these cycles eventually goes bankrupt and the skill nobody has is selling.
- South Park called it: startup → sell out → bro down. Current coordinates: between sell out and bro down.
Where they landed
Quotes
“The Democrats have been hopelessly lost for a long time... everybody I know that's more independently minded is kind of looking for a new message. And thus far there isn't one.”— Dave
“The whole bet is that the pendulum has broken and we're in some runaway cycle to one direction.”— Sam
“The railroads all went bankrupt, WorldCom went bankrupt. Everything goes bankrupt in these types of cycles. I think this time is not different.”— Sam
“It's startup, sell out, bro down. That's what we're currently in.”— Sam
Suggested tweets
Jay Carney and Ron Conway are now running AI education for the Democratic Party — Silicon Valley quietly hedging the hard-Trump pivot. Dave Morin's forecast: the party is 'hopelessly lost.'
Tweet this →Sam Lessin on 2026 positioning: everyone's real bet is that the political pendulum has BROKEN. History's rebuttal: the railroads all went bankrupt too.
Tweet this →Where are we in the cycle? The More or Less consensus, via South Park: somewhere between 'sell out' and 'bro down.'
Tweet this →All topics · Full episode #167 + transcript · Subscribe on YouTube · Spotify