The GOP can’t be a national party without it.
Last week, I spent some time traveling through a state that in recent years has become too much of a foreign territory for Republicans: California.
The last Republican presidential nominee to win California was George H.W. Bush in 1988, and statewide gubernatorial and Senate candidates haven’t done as well.
I think Republicans will not be a successful national party again until we can compete everywhere, every time, for every vote — coast to coast.
I began my trip to California by speaking to technology companies and executives in Silicon Valley. I met with Facebook, eBay, Google and smaller companies. What I heard was very encouraging. They are concerned with our fiscal mess and job-killing tax policies. They are worried their industry will soon be overregulated as most others are, and they think their customers’ right to privacy is in danger from an overreaching federal security state.
I was impressed to learn that both Facebook and Google are going a step above the letter of the law in protecting their customers. The trend in law enforcement in recent years has been to seek information from third parties and circumvent the Fourth Amendment rights of the consumers. I think that is wrong. I think your credit card bills, emails and other information that you share only with your provider should remain private and that your rights remain protected. I was pleased to learn that some of these tech companies quietly agree, and they now refuse to turn over email content without a warrant.
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