It was impossible to watch President Trump’s second inauguration this week without noticing Silicon Valley’s “oligarchs” — Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel (who didn’t attend the inaugural but threw an inauguration party) and their ilk — lining up to curry favor.

Once upon a time, the ultimate aspiration of the ultra-wealthy was to accumulate enough “F-you money” to operate above societal constraints. Now, the tech titans appear so entangled with federal power and have so much at stake financially that they seem compelled to kiss the ring.

This dynamic could be interpreted two ways. One view is that these tech magnates are simply capitulating, hedging their bets in a political environment where noncompliance could be costly (see Trump’s previous threat to jail Zuckerberg). Another is that they’re playing a long game, using Trump as a tool — a convenient vessel to advance their goals in the political realm.

But what do these tech bros actually want?

Like most corporatist elites, they favor lower taxes, deregulation and access to cheap labor, as evidenced by recent clashes with the populist right over H-1B visas.

Still, for some in the tech world, the rightward shift was personal. Take Marc Andreessen, a prominent tech investor, who........

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