The donations offer a rare glimpse of Dorsey's political leanings, which have remained somewhat inscrutable amid criticism from the left for going easy on President Donald Trump and from the right for supposedly "silencing" conservatives. (The CEO has admitted Twitter's biases are "more left-leaning" and has donated to Democrats in the past.) But given the candidates he's supporting, it's still hard to glean where exactly Dorsey's political views lie.
Comment: Not really. He's probably on the increasingly shrinking anti-war, anti-interventionist left. That's what his support for Gabbard and Yang would indicate.
Of all the Democratic candidates, Gabbard's candidacy has proved perhaps the most ideologically conflicted, even mysterious. The Democratic congresswoman, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, has come under fire for her past anti-gay views and meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and her anti-interventionist views on foreign policy play well on the right as well as the left. Beyond Dorsey, many of Gabbard's other post-debate fans seem to have been conservatives; the candidate won the Drudge Report's post-debate poll, garnered news coverage from Breitbart News, and even had Ann Coulter saying, "Go, Tulsi!" "I think a lot of people would vote for her over Trump," right-wing personality Mike Cernovich told Buzzfeed News after the debate. "MAGA people."
Dorsey's support of Yang would seem more straightforward. Yang, a former tech entrepreneur, has a policy agenda driven by technology that's tailor-made for Silicon Valley; the universal basic income plan at the center of his campaign is specifically designed to help Americans adjust to a changing economy that's increasingly disrupted by AI and automation. (Yang has also not been without his share of conservative admirers — "I actually think Andrew Yang probably has more appeal in some corners of the right than Tulsi," Republican strategist and Donald Trump Jr. adviser Andy Surabian told Buzzfeed — though Yang, like Gabbard, has a policy platform that includes progressive causes like Medicare for All.) It's also understandable why he'd put his money toward Yang over frontrunners like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who's made breaking up Big Tech a central part of her platform.
While Gabbard has yet to weigh in on getting a financial endorsement from one of Silicon Valley's biggest players, Yang is clearly happy about making it on Dorsey's radar. "Thank you @jack for the support!" Yang tweeted in April. "I use at least one of your products every day."
Comment: While the political leanings of big tech CEOs is hardly newsworthy, it is interesting that Dorsey is showing support for sensible democratic candidates who have been maligned by the MSM. It seems the Twitter head isn't completely brainwashed by the liberal screeching on his platform and is at least somewhat capable of independent thought.
See also: