A Reuters story last week pitched the idea that billionaire Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, backer of some of the most notorious and toxic conservative candidates around, is souring on his support for the Republican Party and may not be bankrolling anybody in the 2024 races.
This may be something of a relief to the Republican Party, which had some of the worst candidates in the nation foisted on it when Thiel financially supported arch-right anti-immigrant culture warrior Kris Kobach, arch-right white nationalist culture warrior (and Thiel employee) Blake Masters, and arch-right clown-shoe culture warrior J.D. Vance.
Thiel has made something of a pattern of backing hard-right candidates, even after they've lost credibility among Republican elites for being, you know, just freaking awful (witness his support for not just Donald Trump but for Ron Paul's crank 2012 presidential run). He's gravitated toward extremist culture warriors, flooded them with money, and watched them try to smash the place up.
It's that history that makes the Reuters story deeply suspicious. Reuters cites "a source who knows him personally" and a "business associate" to claim that Thiel is "unhappy with the Republican Party's focus on hot-button U.S. cultural issues," things like "abortion and restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use in schools as two examples."
Thiel "came to this conclusion by late 2022," say Reuters sources, which is a bit like saying man unhappy with flamethrower purchase after home burns down. After propping up some of the most vigorously ick culture warriors in the cycle—the truly odious Masters, the lawsuit-happy and state money-hemorrhaging Kobach, and J.D. Vance, of all people—and doing his part to turn the elections into the conspiracy circus and fascism-adjacent grumblefest it became, he now has regrets?
His business-associate source making the claim that Thiel had been hopeful that Donald Every Grievance At Once Trump's 2016 Republican nomination would shift the party from "fake cultural wars" to "our economic decline" makes one wonder about the sanity of all involved. You have to be a special kind of anti-visionary to look at Donald Trump and think he'll be the one to do away with his party's obsession with spite and cultural revenge, and yet Thiel, alleged captain of industry, not only sold himself on that theory but followed it up by promoting even harder-right cranks after Trump failed to deliver.
Honestly, this feels like a shopped story. This feels like two of Peter Thiel's close acquaintances went to a reporter with the story Peter feels super down right now and is questioning whether he wants to play in politics at all, along with—surprise!—a real big hint on what Thiel would like to see the party focus on if they want to see his wheelbarrows of money again.
Says Reuters: "He believes Republicans are making a mistake in focusing on cultural flashpoints and should be more concerned with spurring U.S. innovation - a major issue for him - and competing with China, the business associate said."
Oh, so there we go then. Thiel, who is gay but still a Republican because money, is not happy that Republican candidates appear to be making vitriolic attacks on LGBTQ Americans the core of their 2024 campaigns. What he wants instead is Republican candidates who will "spur" his innovation, possibly through extremely targeted tax cuts or by putting the screws to foreign imports.
Indeed, say the sources, Thiel might still change his mind and choose some candidates to support in 2024. The source who "knows Thiel personally" even suggests that this new Thiel aversion to funding candidates doesn't necessarily apply to candidates "who have worked for him," such as Masters.
What we have here, then, is not necessarily a story about how a despondent Thiel is giving up on supporting Republican candidates because Republican extremism has gotten much worse than he thought it would. It sounds more like a story in which a conservative billionaire kingmaker is placing an order for Republican candidates willing to shut up a bit about those issues while instead promoting an economic and tax reform program centered around giving Peter Thiel more money.
If Thiel had serious reservations about supporting far-right, hoax-backing anti-democratic brickthrowers, he wouldn't reliably be finding the worst of the bunch to write checks to. We'll see, then, whether the megadonor's new reluctance actually makes it to election season. I have a feeling the cynics will win this one hands-down.
RELATED STORIES:
A conservative megadonor is sitting out '24. The GOP is probably relieved
It is finally dawning on conservatives that abortion is dooming their party
The past week seems to have packed in a month’s worth of news. Markos and Kerry tackle it all, from Joe Biden’s big announcement to Tucker Carlson’s early retirement from Fox News.
Embedded Content
This may be something of a relief to the Republican Party, which had some of the worst candidates in the nation foisted on it when Thiel financially supported arch-right anti-immigrant culture warrior Kris Kobach, arch-right white nationalist culture warrior (and Thiel employee) Blake Masters, and arch-right clown-shoe culture warrior J.D. Vance.
Thiel has made something of a pattern of backing hard-right candidates, even after they've lost credibility among Republican elites for being, you know, just freaking awful (witness his support for not just Donald Trump but for Ron Paul's crank 2012 presidential run). He's gravitated toward extremist culture warriors, flooded them with money, and watched them try to smash the place up.
It's that history that makes the Reuters story deeply suspicious. Reuters cites "a source who knows him personally" and a "business associate" to claim that Thiel is "unhappy with the Republican Party's focus on hot-button U.S. cultural issues," things like "abortion and restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use in schools as two examples."
Thiel "came to this conclusion by late 2022," say Reuters sources, which is a bit like saying man unhappy with flamethrower purchase after home burns down. After propping up some of the most vigorously ick culture warriors in the cycle—the truly odious Masters, the lawsuit-happy and state money-hemorrhaging Kobach, and J.D. Vance, of all people—and doing his part to turn the elections into the conspiracy circus and fascism-adjacent grumblefest it became, he now has regrets?
His business-associate source making the claim that Thiel had been hopeful that Donald Every Grievance At Once Trump's 2016 Republican nomination would shift the party from "fake cultural wars" to "our economic decline" makes one wonder about the sanity of all involved. You have to be a special kind of anti-visionary to look at Donald Trump and think he'll be the one to do away with his party's obsession with spite and cultural revenge, and yet Thiel, alleged captain of industry, not only sold himself on that theory but followed it up by promoting even harder-right cranks after Trump failed to deliver.
Honestly, this feels like a shopped story. This feels like two of Peter Thiel's close acquaintances went to a reporter with the story Peter feels super down right now and is questioning whether he wants to play in politics at all, along with—surprise!—a real big hint on what Thiel would like to see the party focus on if they want to see his wheelbarrows of money again.
Says Reuters: "He believes Republicans are making a mistake in focusing on cultural flashpoints and should be more concerned with spurring U.S. innovation - a major issue for him - and competing with China, the business associate said."
Oh, so there we go then. Thiel, who is gay but still a Republican because money, is not happy that Republican candidates appear to be making vitriolic attacks on LGBTQ Americans the core of their 2024 campaigns. What he wants instead is Republican candidates who will "spur" his innovation, possibly through extremely targeted tax cuts or by putting the screws to foreign imports.
Indeed, say the sources, Thiel might still change his mind and choose some candidates to support in 2024. The source who "knows Thiel personally" even suggests that this new Thiel aversion to funding candidates doesn't necessarily apply to candidates "who have worked for him," such as Masters.
What we have here, then, is not necessarily a story about how a despondent Thiel is giving up on supporting Republican candidates because Republican extremism has gotten much worse than he thought it would. It sounds more like a story in which a conservative billionaire kingmaker is placing an order for Republican candidates willing to shut up a bit about those issues while instead promoting an economic and tax reform program centered around giving Peter Thiel more money.
If Thiel had serious reservations about supporting far-right, hoax-backing anti-democratic brickthrowers, he wouldn't reliably be finding the worst of the bunch to write checks to. We'll see, then, whether the megadonor's new reluctance actually makes it to election season. I have a feeling the cynics will win this one hands-down.
RELATED STORIES:
A conservative megadonor is sitting out '24. The GOP is probably relieved
It is finally dawning on conservatives that abortion is dooming their party
The past week seems to have packed in a month’s worth of news. Markos and Kerry tackle it all, from Joe Biden’s big announcement to Tucker Carlson’s early retirement from Fox News.
Embedded Content