How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley
Sara Miles, "How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley"
ISBN: 0374177147, 0520233409 | 2001 | EPUB | 262 pages | 370 KB
It's the late 90s, and Silicon Valley is overflowing with cash. A minor Democratic Party operative, Wade Randlett, realizes that the centrist Clinton-Gore New Democrat ideology is a perfect fit for the libertarian-leaning just-get-it-done millionaires of California's high tech industry – and better yet, they're political virgins. If he can play the matchmaker between cash-rich techies and cash-hungry politicos, Randlett could leapfrog into Democratic Party power.
In this funny and ironic account, Sara Miles recounts what happened when Silicon Valley techies, who knew nothing about how politics works, met Washington politicians who knew nothing about high tech. The clash of styles is entertaining enough, but their attempts at communicating, while badly disguising their selfish agendas, are hilarious. Don't miss the scene where Tipper Gore sits in on drums at a high-tech fundraiser, or the scene where two busloads of congressmen visiting the Napa Valley sing drunkenly to each other over their cell phones. An engaging, insightful, well-reported document of how things get done, or don't.