<story><title>Invitation for DNC reception with Obama at YC</title><url>http://www.scribd.com/doc/219461164/Obama-YC-invite</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rdl</author><text>I would not apply to YC if I knew in advance YC was a DNC fundraising organization.  (I&amp;#x27;d be even &lt;i&gt;more&lt;/i&gt; angry if it were an RNC fundraising organization.)  I&amp;#x27;d even be pissed if it were a Libertarian Party fundraising organization, even if I might donate to them myself.&lt;p&gt;Shark jumping doesn&amp;#x27;t even begin to address this.  This is a new class of fuckup -- &amp;quot;when YC became a political party fundraiser&amp;quot; is the new shark-jump.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>They&amp;#x27;re not a &amp;quot;DNC fundraising organization&amp;quot;. They&amp;#x27;re a business that happens to be run by someone who currently supports the DNC, and is making an in-kind contribution of the use of their office space for an event.&lt;p&gt;YC is a private business. Their management is entitled to participate in the political process in any way they choose. If YC&amp;#x27;s voting interest is OK with an in-kind contribution, that&amp;#x27;s their right too.&lt;p&gt;The idea that you&amp;#x27;d find this kind of thing shocking is a little surprising, since it&amp;#x27;s very much the norm across all political parties.&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;d like to pivot to a discussion of libertarian politics, I&amp;#x27;d observe that there are companies that not only play host to libertarian political activist organizations, but also directly and aggressively lobby in favor of their favored policy objectives.</text></comment>
<story><title>Invitation for DNC reception with Obama at YC</title><url>http://www.scribd.com/doc/219461164/Obama-YC-invite</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rdl</author><text>I would not apply to YC if I knew in advance YC was a DNC fundraising organization.  (I&amp;#x27;d be even &lt;i&gt;more&lt;/i&gt; angry if it were an RNC fundraising organization.)  I&amp;#x27;d even be pissed if it were a Libertarian Party fundraising organization, even if I might donate to them myself.&lt;p&gt;Shark jumping doesn&amp;#x27;t even begin to address this.  This is a new class of fuckup -- &amp;quot;when YC became a political party fundraiser&amp;quot; is the new shark-jump.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bertil</author><text>I can’t really comment on US politics with too much internal knowledge, but from what I gathered, a lot of what YC start-ups are trying to do involves “making the world a better place” (to use what became a trope with the recent HBO series) and that involves bending the rules and needing &lt;i&gt;the law to be adapted&lt;/i&gt; to modern conditions: understanding taxi licences when Uber is around; city planning with AirBnB; on-line gambling; airline insuring against delayed transfers when you are not flying a partner’s flight but a Chipmunk connexion, etc. Payment processing and taxing on-line commerce are probably the largest issues.&lt;p&gt;From what I gathered, raising money for is the simplest form of &lt;i&gt;lobbying&lt;/i&gt;, and Y-Combinator feel they need that access to smooth transition from its alumni proving a business makes money to making it squarely legal. I’m not sure why the DNC rather than RNC or another party; I believe you can’t have both. It might be because it seems unlikely the RNC to win the next election either in San Francisco city-hall, or in California, or even at the Federal level.&lt;p&gt;In either case, I wouldn’t expect Y Combinator not to have appreciated the sensitivity of their decision off the bat.</text></comment>