Blake Masters Is Peter Thiel’s Dream Candidate—and a Total Nightmare for Democracy
The right-wing tech giant, who has said he believes freedom and democracy are incompatible, has poured millions into his protégé’s Senate campaign.
Blake Masters Is Peter Thiel’s Dream Candidate—and a Total Nightmare for Democracy
Now, Masters is running for US Senate in Arizona with more than $13 million from Thiel behind him. If Masters wins his August primary, he will face Mark Kelly, the former astronaut and husband of former Congress member Gabby Giffords, in one of several races expected to decide which party controls the Senate.
Thiel and Masters are willing to move fast and break things. But instead of disrupting taxi companies or hotels, they’ve got American democracy in their sights.
Arizona voters who want to comprehend just how unusual Masters is must understand the full pantheon of his influences. They include Curtis Yarvin, who describes himself as America’s foremost absolute monarchist blogger; Murray Rothbard, the reactionary economist who suggested libertarians use right-wing populism to push their agenda; and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, whom Masters has praised (with caveats). Another favorite is Lee Kuan Yew, the late dictator of Singapore who oversaw a miraculous economic transformation while crushing the civil liberties of those who stood in the way.
But no one is as influential as Thiel, who confessed in a 2009 essay, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Miriam Adelson Peter Thiel,
Sheldon and Miriam Adelson the largest Republican donors