David Marcus
@davidmarcus
I am crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump.
Many — including a former version of myself — get trapped in a mental framework that becomes their identity and prevents them from radically evolving their thinking with new facts and information. I finally broke free from it.
My journey has been a gradual political 180 from where I stood in every previous election. It has been an eye-opening process of disenchantment, zero-basing lifelong beliefs, and rebuilding from there.
In 2017, a good friend enlisted me to pitch the DNC to raise $100M from Silicon Valley founders and executives. The aim was to use these funds and know-how to build a CRM and tech platform to prevent a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s inadequate, outdated 2016 campaign. We met with DNC leadership, who told us we could raise that money, but it would have to go to the general fund; a single-digit percentage would then be allocated to tech. In the wake of one of their most shocking failures, they didn’t want the help.
The next series of realizations began in 2019 while I was at Meta, right after we announced the Libra white paper. I testified before the Senate and the House and subsequently spent significant time in DC, engaging with lawmakers, cabinet members, regulators, and two White House administrations. At the time, I still believed the mainstream idea that Democrats were all about serving the People. However, I was shocked to learn that, for the most part, Republicans cared more deeply about their constituents, while Democrats, in my experience, cared more about government power and control. This is my observation on balance, with many stories to back it up. I also found that more Republicans wanted to understand our project’s goals and took the time to learn about the risks of censoring payments and controlling the network. I found myself remarkably aligned with them.
Then COVID came, revealing more. While I don’t subscribe to the most malicious vaccine conspiracy theories, I do take offense at the censorship machine put in place to hide the origin of the virus from the NIH-funded Wuhan lab and all dissenting voices on vaccinations and lockdowns. At that time, I fully appreciated why Republicans value freedom of speech and preventing censorship.
This trend of spinning and manufacturing a parallel reality to serve the Dem agenda, solidified by complicit mainstream media, hit home with the Hunter Biden laptop story, the coordinated vilification of President Trump and his followers, and President Biden’s cognitive decline — depriving voters of a voice in a proper primary. These examples displayed the hubris of the current Dem leadership. You must think the American people are fools to believe the spin on these issues. I despise this elite vs. general population ideology viscerally.
This version of the Democratic Party is sidelining moderates and centrists and has adopted an increasingly leftist ideology. This drift to the left has dictated policies from which I’ve found myself estranged.
On the domestic front, there has been a total departure from the core American value system of meritocracy, an extreme and weaponized DEI agenda, an open door to massive illegal immigration, and a once-fringe narrative, now mainstream within the party, of vilifying success. This shift is also causing us to fall behind due to an anti-innovation regulatory climate, notably on crypto and soon AI — two non-linear technological breakthroughs that will likely determine tomorrow’s leading countries.
On foreign policy, the administration is exacerbating tensions with Russia through an aggressive NATO expansion narrative focused on Ukraine and prolonging an unwinnable war. This is costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, the world hundreds of thousands of lives, depleting the U.S. military arsenal and risking World War III. On Iran, this administration is continuing a misguided Obama-era plan to bring Iran closer to the West by unfreezing Trump-era sanctions, thus giving the Mollahs’ regime the ability to fund terrorism and pursue its anti-America, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish agenda. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was also handled disastrously. We’re leaving a door open for China to invade Taiwan by coming across as weak. Most importantly to me, concerning Israel, the administration is enabling Iran to fund Hamas and Hezbollah, restraining Israel in its fight against its enemies, thus prolonging another conflict, which is costing more lives on both sides and allowing unprecedented levels of antisemitism to rise at home.
I believe we need a President who is unequivocally pro: America, the Constitution, business, Bitcoin/crypto, innovation, Israel, small government, legal immigration, free speech, meritocracy, and common sense — and anti: regulatory proliferation, illegal immigration, unjust wars, Iran’s current regime, and domestic groups that oppose American values. These issues are central to President Trump’s platform.
Naturally, I disagree with President Trump and the GOP on some issues, particularly women’s reproductive rights. While I’ve come to learn that extreme views exist in both parties, I firmly believe that women should have the unalienable right to make their own decisions on this polarizing topic. President Trump confirmed he was against a national abortion ban and supported the Supreme Court’s decision on maintaining access to mifepristone, which was reassuring and a sign that the party was moving closer to the center.
It’s impossible to close this post without mentioning President Trump’s recent assassination attempt. The courage and resolve he displayed seconds after being hit by a bullet was awe-inspiring for his followers and detractors alike. This was a man, however imperfect, who, at that moment, incarnated the American spirit in the most vivid way, starting to bring a split nation together.
Some claim that reelecting President Trump will bring our democracy to its knees. However, the alternative — having unelected individuals with this much power and no accountability run our government coupled with four more years of bad policies at home and abroad — might present a more significant threat. Neither will likely change in a Harris administration and could potentially worsen.
In this pivotal moment, confronted with the choices we have, I am endorsing and supporting a return to a Republican administration in 2025.
10:27 AM · Jul 31, 2024
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35.6M
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我正在越過盧比孔河並支持共和黨和特朗普總統。
許多人,包括曾經的我,被困在一個成為他們身份的心理框架中,阻礙了他們隨著新事實和信息的出現而徹底改變他們的思維。我終於擺脫了這種狀態。
我的旅程是一個逐步的政治180度轉變,從以前每次選舉中的立場到現在。這是一個令人瞠目結舌的過程,包括對終身信仰的幻滅、重新設定並從頭開始重建。
2017年,一位好朋友讓我向DNC推銷從矽穀創始人和高管那裏籌集1億美元的計劃。目的是利用這些資金和技術專長建立一個CRM和技術平台,以防止希拉裏·克林頓2016年競選中不夠充分和過時的情況重演。我們與DNC領導層會麵,他們告訴我們可以籌集這筆錢,但它必須進入一般基金;其中隻有個位數的百分比會被分配給技術。在他們最令人震驚的失敗之一之後,他們並不想要幫助。
下一係列的覺醒始於2019年,當時我在Meta,剛剛宣布了Libra白皮書。我在參議院和眾議院作證,並隨後在華盛頓特區與議員、內閣成員、監管機構和兩個白宮政府進行大量接觸。當時,我仍然相信民主黨都是為了服務人民。然而,我震驚地發現,大多數情況下,共和黨人更關心他們的選民,而民主黨人,更關心政府的權力和控製。這是我的觀察,有很多故事可以證明。我還發現,更多的共和黨人希望了解我們項目的目標,並花時間了解審查支付和控製網絡的風險。我發現自己與他們非常一致。
然後COVID來了,揭示了更多東西。雖然我不認同最惡意的疫苗陰謀論,但我對為了隱藏來自NIH資助的武漢實驗室的病毒起源而建立的審查機製,以及所有關於疫苗和封鎖的反對聲音感到憤怒。在那時,我完全理解為什麽共和黨重視言論自由和防止審查。
這種為了服務民主黨議程而製造平行現實的趨勢,由默許的主流媒體所鞏固,在亨特·拜登筆記本電腦事件、協調抹黑特朗普總統及其追隨者、拜登總統的認知能力下降——剝奪選民在正式初選中的發言權等問題上達到了頂峰。這些例子展示了當前民主黨領導層的傲慢。你必須認為美國人民是傻子,才能相信這些問題的炒作。我對這種精英與普通大眾的意識形態本能地感到厭惡。
這個版本的民主黨正在把溫和派和中間派邊緣化,並采用越來越左傾的意識形態。這種左傾導致了一係列政策,我發現自己與之疏遠。
在國內方麵,完全背離了美國核心的價值體係,即精英主義,極端且被武器化的DEI議程,對大量非法移民持開放態度,以及曾經是邊緣的敘述,現在在黨內成為主流,抹黑成功。這種轉變也導致我們因為反創新的監管環境,尤其是在加密貨幣和即將到來的AI領域,正在落後——這兩個非線性的技術突破可能決定明天的領導國家。
在外交政策上,政府通過聚焦於烏克蘭的激進北約擴張敘述,正在加劇與俄羅斯的緊張關係並延長一場無望的戰爭。這使得美國納稅人損失了數千億美元,世界損失了數十萬人的生命,耗盡了美國的軍事武器庫,並冒著第三次世界大戰的風險。關於伊朗,這個政府正在繼續奧巴馬時代的錯誤計劃,通過解凍特朗普時代的製裁,讓穆拉政權有能力資助恐怖主義,並推動其反美、反以色列和反猶太的議程。從阿富汗的撤軍也處理得非常糟糕。我們給中國留下了入侵台灣的機會,因為我們看起來很軟弱。對我來說,最重要的是,關於以色列,政府正在讓伊朗資助哈馬斯和真主黨,限製以色列與其敵人的戰鬥,從而延長另一個衝突,導致雙方更多的生命損失,並在國內允許前所未有的反猶主義上升。
我相信我們需要一位明確支持美國、憲法、商業、比特幣/加密貨幣、創新、以色列、小政府、合法移民、言論自由、精英主義和常識的總統——反對監管擴散、非法移民、不正義的戰爭、伊朗現政權以及反對美國價值觀的國內團體。這些問題是特朗普總統平台的核心。
當然,我在某些問題上不同意特朗普總統和共和黨,特別是女性的生育權。我已經了解到,兩個黨派中都有極端觀點,但我堅信女性應該有不可剝奪的權利在這個兩極分化的問題上做出自己的決定。特朗普總統確認他反對全國性墮胎禁令,並支持最高法院關於保持米非司酮可及性的決定,這令人放心,也是該黨正在向中間靠攏的一個信號。
不提到最近針對特朗普總統的暗殺企圖就不可能結束這篇文章。他在被擊中後的幾秒鍾內表現出的勇氣和決心令他的追隨者和批評者都感到敬佩。那一刻,這個雖然不完美的人,最生動地體現了美國精神,開始將分裂的國家團結起來。
一些人聲稱,重新選舉特朗普總統將使我們的民主崩潰。然而,另一種選擇——讓這些沒有責任感的非選舉人士掌握我們政府的巨大權力,並繼續在國內外實施四年的糟糕政策——可能會帶來更大的威脅。在哈裏斯政府中,這些情況可能都不會改變,甚至可能會惡化。
在這個關鍵時刻,麵對我們擁有的選擇,我正在支持並推動2025年共和黨政府的回歸。
PS
最近和一位高中生閑聊,讓我相信願意思考的,不固守信仰/理念的還是很多的。接他家從歐洲旅遊回來,說錯過了床鋪躲過刺殺的大新聞,高中生就說床鋪是felon,是racist,不能選他做總統。我說這都是扣帽子,貼標簽,得看他的施政綱領。他也沒繼續辯論,就說出民主黨讓他糾結的地方,說他對待lgptq是接受的,包容的,但是現在被逼著去違心地擁抱,讚賞,他覺得這是dictator才幹的事情。