Blue states have a big problem that they don't get and it is ..., says LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Silicon Valley's biggest Democrat supporter

Reid Hoffman

has shared a blunt message for Democrats: parts of

silicon valley

no longer feel welcome in the party. The

LinkedIn

founder appeared on a recent episode of Lonsdale's "American Optimist" podcast where he said that it is “not surprising” that some of his Silicon Valley pals have left the

Democratic Party

. Reid Hoffman told Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale that Democrats hurt themselves by targeting crypto,

Big Tech

, and other areas of innovation. He added that “very clearly there are a bunch of things that red states are doing better than blue states, and we should learn from them”

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman: Democrats alienated silicon valley

"I regret this and wish it didn't happen, but I think the Democratic Party really did alienate a section of Silicon Valley and the tech people, whether it was attacks on crypto, whether it was kind of just attacks on Big Tech, all these things," Hoffman told Lonsdale during the podcast. Hoffman goes on to criticize alifornia’s regulations, which he said push companies to test their innovations elsewhere. He added that many in tech view companies as the only way to scale innovations that can benefit humanity, and felt Democrats were attacking that model.

“One of the things that I think Silicon Valley shares is this like deep view that the way you make massive progress for humanity is creating scale technologies,” Hoffman said. “And the principal way of creating scale technologies is companies, and so if you're attacking that and limiting it, then you have all kinds of problems.”The LinkedIn founder cited Aurora Innovation, a trucking startup his Greylock fund backed. Though based in California, the company had to test its driverless trucks in Texas because of friendlier rules.

Red states vs blue states

During the podcast, Reid Hoffman said he often recommends the book ‘Abundance’ by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson to highlight that Republican-led states have policies more supportive of sectors like autonomous vehicles and construction. “There are a bunch of things that red states are doing better than blue states, and we should learn from them,” he said.