What really matters to American voters in the 2016 election? According to Frank Luntz, one of the most respected Republican pollsters, it can summarized in a word: “security”.
Americans crave security, Luntz says — everything from financial and job security to social and healthcare security. The candidates of both parties need to satisfy this craving for security, he says. It will win the election.
So how does this affect the tech community?
Words matter in politics, Luntz reminds us. And Silicon Valley, he insists, has been tone-deaf to the American mood.
Words like “disruption” and “hacker” which entrepreneurs and venture capitalists gleefully throw around, sound like the antithesis of “security”, alienating not only voters but also candidates. And this may be one reason why so many of us in Silicon Valley feel so isolated from what’s going on the rest of America.
Many thanks to CALinnovates and Lincoln Initiative for their help in the production of this series.