Restoration Roundtable


America's Crumbling Foundation And The People Who Might Fix It

Should Silicon Valley learn to work like D.C.?

By Jim Tankersley  //  March 26, 2012 | 7:21 a.m.
Politico has a fascinating story from the weekend about Silicon Valley tech companies stepping up their savvy to lobby in Washington. Here's the paragraph that grabbed me:

The cultural divide between the sandals-and-shades West Coast and the stayed-collar East Coast is as wide as the vast nation that separates them. And for a long time, the eggheads didn't have much use for lobby lurkers. But the industry's growth has been accompanied by an increase in Washington's interest in regulating new technologies that affect constituents -- and their longtime allies (read campaign donors) in other industries, like the movie and music businesses.

So, question: Silicon Valley is the most innovative corner of America right now. Do we really want it adapting to D.C. - or would it be better the other way around?

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About Restoration Calls

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his first inaugural address, told a country struggling under the weight of the Great Depression that the nation needed to take action to rebuild and rejuvenate itself. He said: "Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now." It was a time not unlike our own, where misbehavior on Wall Street fed a widespread credit and confidence crisis that swept like a tornado through the U.S. and global economy. And as in 1933, Washington again faces the time-sensitive task of diagnosing how its institutions are ill-equipped to fix the nation's problems, and then building a new system responsive to America's new needs. This project will tell that story, through the eyes of the Americans affected.

Introduction to this series >>