JOEL KOTKIN: Twilight of the Oligarchs? Still capitalists at heart, tech titans cozied up to the progressive Left—until the contradictions became too obvious. The trouble is, they went out of their way to piss off their obvious allies, the right.

UPDATE: Megan McArdle: New York’s Amazon Dustup Was An Early Battle In The Long War Facing Big Tech.

Though Amazon won’t lose much by redirecting expansion elsewhere (including adding personnel to its offices elsewhere in New York), Big Tech should be worried about the company’s experience. Once viewed by the left as the Good Big Business, Big Tech has now been reclassified to the ranks of the rapacious monopolists. Meanwhile, the right is also getting less tech-friendly as it perceives Big Tech taking the other side in the culture wars. At the moment, tech has no obvious political allies.

Allies are going to be essential, because Amazon’s battles with local activists in Seattle and now New York were but the opening skirmishes in what promises to be a long war. Activists are looking to curb tech’s economic power, with whatever political tools they have at their disposal, from the special employment taxes tried in Seattle to lobbying for federal antitrust actions.

So in a war, you need allies, and they can’t all be people you’ve bought. Who will ally themselves with Big Tech?