I used to cringe at the sympathetic, patronizing looks I got when Silicon Valley types found out I live in New Jersey...but now I’m the one who feels sorry for them. While both states have surprisingly similar economies, demographics, and traffic problems, I’ll gladly shovel snow for a couple of months to enjoy our 50% lower housing prices, the nation’s 2nd-best school system, and distinct absence of major earthquakes. Despite the country’s perceptions of our state as an appendage of New York City, known chiefly for its highways, oil refineries, diners, and mafia burial sites, the Garden State has always led the nation in technical and social innovation. I have lots of fun reminding my smug friends from the Valley that New Jersey was busy giving us television, the transistor, CMOS, LCDs, birth control pills, and lots more, while San José was still covered by orange orchards. I’m also proud to say that New Jersey is the home of an important social phenomenon: the Geek Politician.
My congressman, Rush Holt, is the quintessential Geek Politician, a guy who treats politics as an exercise in problem-solving rather than a race to see who can grab the most power and personal plunder. In a nation where law firms and corporate boardrooms seem to be the primary breeding ground for its political leaders, it’s a refreshing change to have a congressional representative whose background includes a PhD in physics, an assistant directorship at a fusion research facility, and five winning appearances on the TV game show Jeopardy. Rush is not the most telegenic fellow on the Hill and has a distinctly un-charismatic public persona, but his enthusiasm for the democratic process and willingness to focus on unglamorous but important issues has made him a hero in his home district. More important, his soft-spoken, rational, get-it-done-right approach has won him lots of respect on both sides of the aisle and put him at the center of several critical debates that will shape the future of our nation.
Being a technically-literate legislator, Rush has brought a geek’s-eye-perspective to everything from re-shaping our energy policy to overseeing the nation’s intelligence operations. In an era where we’ve lowered our expectations of our schools to simply hoping most kids learn the Three Rs by 12th grade, Rush has championed enhanced math, science and foreign language education for all elementary and high school age kids. Representative Holt has also become deeply involved in ensuring that the flaws in our current electronic voting systems, that make them open to potential fraud and abuse, are fixed in a timely way. He might not get much air time on the Sunday talk shows (or even The Daily Show), but it’s really great having somebody making decisions about US technology policy that does not think the Internet is a "series of tubes"!
Lately, my favorite Geek Legislator has begun to take on the ugly misinterpretation of our laws that led to the warrant-less wiretaps and other unconstitutional surveillance activities that could help turn our democracy into a police state. I’ve written about some of the Soviet-style hi-jinks that our government has pulled in the name of national security in several editorials (see Burning the Village to Save It and Making Lemonade) but Rush is actually doing something about them. His FISA Modernization Bill of 2007 (HR 3782) would restore the checks, balances and accountability to our domestic security program while retaining its ability to respond to quickly-evolving situations. Without the oversight that this important legislation provides, our security agencies can easily be subverted to serve internal political agendas, and our vast telecommunications system could become a highly-effective surveillance tool that would stagger even George Orwell.
Reforming our surveillance policy is not a partisan issue, it’s a critical step to preserving the basic rights to privacy, free speech and due process guaranteed by the US Constitution. That’s why staunch Republicans like GA Representative John Linder and PA Representative John Peterson have thrown their support behind this Democrat-sponsored bill. Since this a critical piece of lawmaking that will help determine the kind of country our kids grow up in, I’d strongly urge you to ensure your local congressfolk get behind it too. You can locate your Representative’s office here and track the bill’s progress here.
This is not the only issue that could benefit from a Geek Politician’s insight but, since we don’t have enough of them in Congress, it’s up to folks like us to make our voices heard on a regular basis. As members of the geek community, our better understanding of the technology that affects our economy, our culture, and our political system makes it especially important that our voices be heard.
This spring, I’ll attending the usual conferences in San José, Austin, San Diego and other trendy high-tech hot spots...but I won’t be apologizing for being from New Jersey any more. Sure, you guys have better sushi, lattes, and Tex-Mex-Hindi fusion cuisine than us unfashionable Jerseyites, but we’ve got the country’s best Geek Politician in our own backyard. Besides, you can’t get a decent diner-style high-rise cheesecake anywhere else and our pizza beats the pants off of anything you can find in San José.
You got a problem with that?
Comments? Questions? Need directions to the White Mana or any other of our fabulous diners? Write me at LHG at EN-Genius.net or click below to comment directly on our blog.
