Barabak: Elon Musk brought a Silicon Valley mindset to Trump's Washington. It's been a disaster

Washington has ne'er seen thing similar the rule-breaking, power-taking, government-torching, protocol-scorching unit of delighted havoc and gleeful mayhem that is Elon Musk.

Margaret O’Mara has.

The University of Washington historiographer charted the spectacular emergence and all-swallowing power of the tech manufacture and its titans successful her excellent, highly readable 2019 work, “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.”

Musk, who grew affluent by property 30 done his start-up work, is simply a comparatively tiny quality successful the book, for reasons of communicative and focus. Instead, O’Mara centered her past connected the founders and backmost stories of the large level companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

But there’s an attitude, a worldview and a cardinal acceptable of principles that usher the tech manufacture and its progeny, similar a secular catechism. O’Mara sees those beliefs precise overmuch successful grounds astatine Musk’s fancifully named Department of Government Efficiency, oregon DOGE, and his wrecking-ball efforts to raze immense swaths of the national authorities successful a single, unfettered swoop.

Several elements are contiguous and accounted for.

The “techno optimism,” arsenic O’Mara described it, with its unshakable religion that exertion is inherently bully and volition amended things — “even if determination mightiness beryllium immoderate collateral harm on the way.” The thrust to determination rapidly and standard rapidly, if recklessly. The value of idiosyncratic relationships, specified arsenic the transactional bromance betwixt President Trump and Musk, who spent much than a 4th of a cardinal dollars to enactment his state backmost successful the Oval Office.

The 2 are masters of “the modern attraction economy” — getting radical to beryllium up and instrumentality announcement — “and person a benignant of shamelessness,” O’Mara said, “that is to their advantage, business-wise and politically close now.”

O’Mara worked successful authorities and authorities earlier teaching and undertaking her big-sweep cataloging of American history. (Other books see 1 looking astatine 4 statesmanlike races that shaped the 20th century.)

Raised successful Little Rock, O’Mara went from assemblage to volunteering for Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s 1992 statesmanlike campaign. After helium won, she took a presumption successful the White House, moving from the West Wing connected economical and societal policy.

Though O’Mara served for a clip connected the unit of Vice President Al Gore, an aboriginal techie adapter and 1 of Silicon Valley’s strongest governmental allies, she didn’t enactment connected tech policy. “I was successful the country adjacent to the country wherever that was happening,” she joked connected a Zoom telephone from her location bureau connected Washington state’s Mercer Island. Her dog, an enthusiastic Labradoodle named Zuka, offered little commentary off-camera.

O’Mara’s postgraduate enactment astatine the University of Pennsylvania led her to Silicon Valley, arsenic her dissertation explored the home economical affects of the Cold War. “Once you commencement looking astatine that question,” she said, “it gets you to a full big of things, including the electronics manufacture and micro-electronics and transistors. So I benignant of came to tech done politics.”

Seattle, Washington-At the University of Washington, Margaret O’Mara Scott is Chair of American History University of Washington (along with and Dorothy Bullitt) (Margaret O’Mara)

(The University of Washington’s Margaret O’Mara has written a highly readable past of Silicon Valley and its rise)

O’Mara’s publication explains however the national authorities built Silicon Valley, a information galore of its entrepreneurs and legends — basking successful the reflection of their self-glorification — take to ignore, oregon neglect to understand. “That’s really portion of the secret,” O’Mara said. “The indirect quality of the spending, the information that it’s flowing done universities and backstage companies successful mode that is benignant of stealthy and hidden.”

Of course, determination was a profusion of large minds successful California’s fertile Santa Clara Valley, innovators and visionaries blessed with a superhuman capableness to adjacent astir corners and heavy into the future. All that brainpower would person been for naught, however, prevention for the beneficence of Uncle Sam. As a customer. A subsidizer of research. A shaper of quality capital, done generous acquisition funding. As an angel investor.

“We deliberation of debased taxes and deregulation arsenic lack of government,” O’Mara said. “But really those are authorities decisions that were made favorable — precise deliberately truthful — [to] this industry.”

Call it ignorance oregon arrogance, there’s a profoundly embedded conception successful Silicon Valley and galore of its denizens that due to the fact that authorities is not market-driven “it is, by definition, stodgy and inefficient and wasteful and corrupt,” O’Mara said. They deliberation that radical moving successful authorities “aren’t precise smart. The astute radical each spell to enactment successful business.”

That mentality goes a agelong mode toward explaining the meat-ax attack Musk has applied, with Trump’s encouragement, to full agencies and national programs. Doubtless, determination is waste, fraud and maltreatment that could beryllium thoughtfully and deliberately carved out. Government is, aft all, a quality endeavor.

But the wantonness of DOGE destruction, the bloodletting, the undifferentiated firing of national employees en masse is not a bug, arsenic they accidental successful bundle development. It’s a feature.

“Elon’s benignant of taking what helium did astatine Twitter” — an archetypal measurement was firing 80% of the workforce — “and attempting to larboard it implicit to the national government,” O’Mara said. But the national authorities “is not a small- to medium-sized, unprofitable societal media company. And the assemblage is inactive retired connected whether that was really an effectual mode to negociate Twitter.”

There is simply a trope, favored by the politically facile, that authorities should run much similar a business. But that’s a inexpensive hustle. Business and authorities person antithetic constituencies and divergent functions. Government can’t prime and take those it serves, oregon constitute disconnected portions of the state based connected a cost-benefit analysis. If it did, to usage but 1 example, determination goes your agrarian message delivery.

“Could you marque things much efficient? Could you get people’s taxation refunds retired faster, and each those things?” O’Mara asked. “Yes, but oftentimes that requires much government, not less. More quality capital, much technology, much investment.”

The tendency for precocious services astatine debased outgo — enactment different way, a escaped luncheon — is simply a contradiction and a conundrum that Americans person wrestled with since the country’s founding, agelong earlier determination were competing Democratic and Republican parties.

And present Elon Musk is expected to beryllium the solution?

Heaven assistance america all.