(Note: This was written October 25, for publication October 30. If November 3 doesn’t turn out as this column anticipates, learn Chinese.)
As I wrote back in February 2019, Kamala Harris is to tech as George H.W. Bush was to oil. I thought she’d be the nominee but, like Bush, she faltered and will become Vice President.
Bush used the Vice Presidency to cement oil’s place in power for a generation. Reagan was the front man, but Bush did the work, bringing in his friend James A. Baker as Treasury Secretary, then using him as chief of staff and Secretary of State. The Baker-Bush tandem secured our alliance with the Sauds, fighting their war to control it against Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. Their power was secure enough to get through the Clinton years, and make American knees jerk twice for Bush’s son, who finished off Iraq.
Kamala Harris’ job is to do the same thing with tech that Bush did with oil, cement a generational alliance that can dominate American politics and return America’s prominence in business.
As I wrote then:
She won’t break up Google, although she may regulate it, which is not that bad. The costs of regulation would cement the Cloud Czars’ positions on top of the business world, for a generation, until some other industry comes to take over.
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