A quick refresher. In 2017, Khan - then a law student - published #AmazonsAntitrustParadox in the *#YaleLawJournal*. It was a brilliant, blistering analysis showing how the #Reagan-era theory of antitrust (which celebrates monopolies as "efficient") had failed on its own terms, using Amazon as Exhibit A of the ways in which post-Reagan antitrust had left Americans vulnerable to corporate abuse:

https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox

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The paper sent seismic shocks through both legal and economic circles, and goosed the #NeoBrandeisian movement (sneeringly dismissed as "#HipsterAntitrust"). This movement is a rebuke to #Reaganomics, with its celebration of #monopolies, #TrickleDown, #offshoring, corporate dark money, revolving-door #RegulatoryCapture, and companies that are simultaneously #TooBigToFail and #TooBigToJail.

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This movement has many proponents, of course - not just Khan - but Khan's careful scholarship, combined with her encyclopedic knowledge of the long-dormant statutory powers that federal agencies had to make change, and a strategy for reviving those powers to protect Americans from corporate predators made her a powerful, inspirational figure.

When Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, he surprised everyone by appointing Khan to the #FederalTradeCommission.

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It wasn't just that she had such a radical vision - it was also that she lacked the usual corporate law experience that such an appointee would normally require (experience that would ensure that the FTC was helmed by people whose default view of the world is that it should be structured and regulated by powerful, wealthy people in corporate boardrooms).

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Even more surprising was that Khan was made FTC *chair*, something that was only possible because a few Republican Senators broke with their party to support her candidacy:

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1171/vote_117_1_00233.htm

These Republicans saw in Khan an ally in their fight against "woke" #BigTech. For these senators, the problem wasn't that tech had got too big and powerful - it was that there were a few limited instances in which tech leaders failed to wield that power in the ways they preferred.

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The Republican project is a matter of getting turkeys to vote for Christmas by doing a lot of culture war bullshit, cruelly abusing disfavored sexual and racial minorities. This wins support from low-information voters who'll vote against their class interests and support more monopolies, more tax cuts for the rich, and more cuts to the services they rely on.

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But while tech leaders are 100% committed to the project of permanent oligarchic takeover of every sphere of American life, they are less full-throated in their support for hateful, cruel discrimination against disfavored minorities (in this regard, tech leaders resemble the corporate wing of the Democrats, which is where we get the "Silicon Valley is a Democratic Party stronghold" narrative).

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This failure to unquestioningly and unstintingly back culture war bullshit put tech leaders in the GOP's crosshairs. Some GOP politicians actually believe in the culture war bullshit, and are grossly offended that tech is "woke." Others are smart enough not to get high on their own supply, but worry that any tech obstruction in the bullshit culture wars will make it harder to get sufficient turkey votes for a big fat Christmas surprise.

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