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Donald Trump

Peter Thiel Speaking at RNC in Cleveland Is Interesting and Weird. And Really Good.

There should have been about a dozen of him here if the GOP was serious about becoming a future-oriented party.

Nick Gillespie | 7.21.2016 9:33 PM

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So right now as I type the controversial tech billionaire Peter Thiel is killing it at the Cleveland RNC with a speech talking about the need for government to do less but do it better, getting rid of culture-war skirmishes, and building a culture that looks forward to the future. He also attacked American foreign policy, especially "stupid wars" in the Middle East.

It was a good speech, especially because he said he was proud to be gay, American, and from Cleveland. Without a doubt, there is a huge disconnect between much of Trump's actual words and positions and Thiel's vision. But it was great to hear what the PayPal co-founder, early investor in Facebook and Lyft, and other aspects of the most-interesting part of the U.S. economy.

If the GOP was serious about changing its slow march to irrelevance, there should have been 10 Thiels to every Joe Arpaio, rather than the other way around.

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NEXT: Peter Thiel, Radical Libertarian Futurist, Thinks Donald Trump Can Rebuild America

Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

Donald TrumpRepublican Convention 2016
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