Valleywag
We love stories about the vast right-wing conspiracy, and the shadowy Paypal network, as much as the next man. But Mother Jones' overblown expose of The Vanguard, the conservative answer to Move On, falls for the organization's own self-aggrandizing propaganda. The scary-sounding online group was founded by a Paypal veteran, Rod Martin. But it would be an exaggeration to suggest that there was a secret conservative network in Silicon Valley underpinned by alumni of the online payments service.
Rod Martin has long been as loyal a Republican as one would expect from the author of the obsequious Thank You, President Bush. The Vanguard gets support from older Republicans like Gil Amelio. But the younger Valley conservatives, who have mellowed into moderate libertarians, regard The Vanguard as "a joke". Former firebrand, Keith Rabois, now at Slide, now puts his political affiliation down as Moderate, and supports gay-loving Rudy Giuliani for president. Peter Thiel, who mounted a lonely campaign with Rabois against political correctness at Stanford, is too busy talking up the valuation of Facebook and pursuing eternal life to worry much about humdrum politics.
The Valley's vast right-wing conspiracy
We love stories about the vast right-wing conspiracy, and the shadowy Paypal network, as much as the next man. But Mother Jones' overblown expose of The Vanguard, the conservative answer to Move On, falls for the organization's own self-aggrandizing propaganda. The scary-sounding online group was founded by a Paypal veteran, Rod Martin. But it would be an exaggeration to suggest that there was a secret conservative network in Silicon Valley underpinned by alumni of the online payments service.
Rod Martin has long been as loyal a Republican as one would expect from the author of the obsequious Thank You, President Bush. The Vanguard gets support from older Republicans like Gil Amelio. But the younger Valley conservatives, who have mellowed into moderate libertarians, regard The Vanguard as "a joke". Former firebrand, Keith Rabois, now at Slide, now puts his political affiliation down as Moderate, and supports gay-loving Rudy Giuliani for president. Peter Thiel, who mounted a lonely campaign with Rabois against political correctness at Stanford, is too busy talking up the valuation of Facebook and pursuing eternal life to worry much about humdrum politics.
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1:08 PM on Thu Jun 21 2007
By Nick Denton
1,117 views
1 comment
Comments
While we appreciate the Mother Jones story (not least because it was mostly positive despite being printed in a magazine with a radically different political viewpoint), there were any number of aspects of it I would not have written quite the way they did.
But more to the point, I just want to note here that we agree with your post to a certain degree: I do not like to promise anything we haven't already delivered, and I have done my best not to. Our project is still early stage, we have not yet launched, and there's a lot of work yet to be done. I feel very positive about it. However -- and I've said this to every interviewer who's contacted to me -- stories about us are premature right now; and though I appreciate the buzz, we are not (yet) seeking out publicity, and I have done nothing (yet) to encourage it.
And yes, I am more than a little aware of the dearth of conservatives in the Valley. ;)
Sincerely,
Rod D. Martin
Founder and Chairman
TheVanguard.Org
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