Why Silicon Valley has been silent on the shutdown

Silicon Valley has recently sought to reverse its longstanding aversion to politics. Lobby shops for companies like Google and Facebook have ballooned, campaign contributions have started to flow, new organizations have formed, and high-profile advocacy campaigns have made headlines across the country.

On the fight over the government shutdown and debt ceiling, though, they've been almost entirely absent. While it's possible pressure is being applied behind closed doors, industry trade groups like the Consumer Electronics Association have remained publicly silent, and no tech groups signed on to the Chamber of Commerce's letter urging Congress to get its act together and fund the government. Besides, as long as their main priorities, like patent trolls, are getting taken care of -- and companies can still go public -- techies figure everything else will sort itself out. "I think right now there's a lot of wait and see from the tech community on the shutdown," says Engine Advocacy strategist Mike McGeary, who translated the shutdown for his start-up types. "On one level, business is continuing on a whole lot of the issues that we've been working on, so that coupled with the relatively negligible impacts felt thus far, may have led to a copacetic sense of letting Washington work out its own problem here."