Our Constitutional Crisis: A Tech Worker's POV, a follow up.

So Senator Schiff replied to my letter. Sort of. I'm sure that he and his staff had responses on deck, and it was effectively a declaration of "I'll be here fighting" with statements about the funding freeze, and Trump being an authoritarian. It wasn't a response to my words and concerns and more of a blanket thing, with one time-sensitive statement made so it'd be clear that whoever wrote it did so within the week. I decided to respond.

Hold your heads, everyone. I don't have much but anger to share right now, but I'll try to update this with resources for how you can help with existing organizing efforts.

Dear Senator Schiff,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my letter. Unfortunately, given that I'm a technical writer, I can recognize a form letter when I see one, as I've crafted similar communications in my time. A colleague of mine received a similar letter to mine, and the bulk of the difference between the two was that the response your office sent to me focused on the funding federal freeze, while my colleague received focused on Elon Musk's attack on USAid. You haven't addressed my central point, and this past week's effective coup as demonstrated as such: That tech industry executives, with Elon Musk as their vanguard (and as of now, effective unelected president) have been allowed to run roughshod over the American public for years, decades. Enabled by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, unchecked by existing laws and regulations, and it has directly led to the dire situation that we're in. When I say directly, I mean it very plainly.

The reason that these men, Elon most obviously visible among them, are so comfortable and assured in breaking multiple laws and bulldozing their way through the federal government, is that they've been able to circumvent or overtly break laws that should have been met with serious consequences, up to and including jail time for their perpetrators. They are rewarded for their actions rather than punished. For a general example, while our government fell all over itself to ban TikTok for supposed national security concerns, Elon Musk was allowed to affect international relations and conflicts due to his contracts with Starlink long before he before he became our de facto president/dictator. This will no doubt become a factor in how we interact with the international community for years to come. For a more explicit example, Musk's SpaceX submitted fraudulent test results to TCEQ and the EPA as recent as LAST YEAR. That's a felony. Yet it was ignored. Biochemist and environmental policy wonk Eric Roesch wrote a 19 page technical and legal analysis on these crimes and how they were enabled by inaction here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FaUPzAt45RSGNQnwGFZP9jreliiRK8o5/view

And these are only Elon's crimes and transgressions. I'm even not going into equally guilty figures like Peter Thiel's Palantir. When I bring up these examples, it's not because I specifically want you to comment on international conflicts, or environmental crimes. It's because this all happened on Congress' watch, both Republican and Democrat. To put a finer, more current point on it, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries was meeting with tech leaders here in Silicon Valley last week to court their support: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/07/hakeem-jeffries-silicon-valley-donors-00203076

It's no longer the time to give these people preferential treatment and support. People like Peter Thiel, Marc Andressen, and yes, Elon Musk benefit from the dissolution of the federal government as it stands, and they've put in the work to do it, with Elon being kind enough to do it publicly and in a very obvious way. This happened on Congress' watch. More pertinently, as Silicon Valley is in California, this happened on your watch, on Senator Padilla's watch, and on Rep. Khanna's watch. Rep. Khanna, in fact, was seemingly eager to join DOGE once the election was done. Given what Elon and company had planned, there was no hope in them accepting his overtures--they clearly view Congress as enemies, so why would they accept them into their ranks--but if they had he'd be party to all the crimes they're currently committing. As an elected official for this great state, how does it make you feel to know that your colleague would be willing to be party to what's happening right now?

I understand that things are scary right now. I've seen statements from people Sen. Gilibrand of New York that part of the reason that more direct action hasn't been taken is that they've received death threats. To be utterly and completely frank with you, Congress forfeited the right to react to fear with anything other than steadfast adhering to their supposed beliefs and ethics the moment that they allowed these men to repeatedly violate the law of the land with no consequence. The reason that these wolves are past your gates is because you opened them up in the first place. What we need in the current moment is a clear sign from our Senators and Representatives that not only are they aware that we are currently being attacked, but that they are willing to do what is right in response. Oppose them at every turn, and put yourselves on the line if you need to. These people are breaking the law. There shouldn't be an argument about what can or can't be done, because it's no longer a case of obscure legislation. This is life and death for millions of ordinary American and people around the world. I sincerely hope that you're ready to meet this moment accordingly, or you're willing to help whoever is.

As for what I said previously in regards to what happens when the tide eventually turns, as you represent California, I want to know what happens to both hold Silicon Valley's tech executive class accountable for the damage that they've done to American industry (and at this point, our federal government), but also to prevent them from wielding the power that would allow them to do it again. These might be questions with wide-reaching consequences that involve a fundamental change in the relationship between our government and the tech industry, but the actual answers are not difficult, I assure you. To offer you a hint, the tech industry is engaged in this current coup in spite of all their extolling of the virtues of capitalism, the "free market" no longer want to buy what they're selling. So they've decided to lay siege to the government in order to force the free market to do so. In the future, hopefully when we are in a better place, I would suggest that when tech industry leader asks for preferential treatment to prevent them from failing? Tell them that the market has chosen, and that if they truly believe in a meritocracy, they'll simply figure out how to provide something that the market wants.

Thank you for your time.