Garrett Johnson
In the wake of Mitt Romney’s defeat in 2012, my partners and I sat down and took a long, hard look at what the Republican party and liberty causes did right and wrong during the election. As technologists, our focus was on where we fell short on the digital pieces of a modern campaign. Unfortunately, after only brief analysis we found we were behind the progressive movement at every level.
Rather than sitting around and complaining, we began Lincoln Labs – a conservative and libertarian technology organizing arm for campaigns and political efforts on the right side of the aisle. As most Americans, and certainly many conservatives know, if we wait for the establishment or those inside the Beltway to come up with new ideas, we’ll have gray hair and still nothing to show for our patience.
Our frustration manifested itself in creating a group that hosts events across the country on a regular basis – bringing together young, ‘conservatarian’ hackers and others to create new, innovative technology. We’ve been impressed with the level of talent we’ve observed and decided to take Lincoln Labs to the next level by hosting our first annual conference later this month – Reboot – in San Francisco from July 18-20.
We’re excited to have Senator Rand Paul as our keynote participant along with Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and other notable people from both the political and the technology worlds. We hope that Reboot will be the catalyst for a new round of thinking – and most importantly – technological development for conservatives to begin applying what we’ve learned in Silicon Valley to Washington and beyond.
While San Francisco may seem an odd choice to host a conservative get-together, the Bay Area is the world’s technology hub and many of those that work, live and own start-ups and large companies alike share our smaller government, low-regulation philosophy. We want to nurture these relationships and bring more of our colleagues, and their ideas, into the political discussion.
But the Reboot conference is not just an end unto itself. We will build on what we believe we’ll be an extremely successful weekend to take our ideas, products and messages across the country – advocating for more and better utilization of technology to help solve some of our biggest problems. With any effort to shake up the status quo, we know it will not be easy – but tasks easily overcome rarely bear fruit.
California has long been the epicenter for new thinking, new ideas and innovation. Although we’ve taken far too many steps backward here in the Golden State – hyper-regulation and failing public education come to mind – there are still as many smart, right-thinking people here as there are anywhere.
We want to harness the ideas and energy from those here in our home state and across the country to truly begin a new conversation on how conservatives and libertarians can and should contribute to creating a more prosperous and vibrant economy. Entrepreneurs and the small businesses they create have historically been, and will be for generations to come, the backbone of the American economy.
Now is the time to step forward for what we believe, how we believe we can change our state and country for the better, and shake off the cobwebs of decades of old, monolithic thinking about how government and politics operates, get government out of the way and create greater prosperity for all. We hope you’ll join us.
The Lincoln Labs Reboot conference will be held July 18-20th at the W Hotel in San Francisco. To learn more or register, please visit www.lincolnlabs.com and click on the Conference tab.
Garrett Johnson is the Co-Founder of SendHub, a telecommunications startup in Silicon Valley. He was previously a staffer on Capitol Hill and worked for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.