Conservatives blame Silicon Valley Bank collapse on ‘diversity’ and ‘woke’ issues

As the government races to contain the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, conservatives are seizing on the rescue as a “Biden bailout” for a “woke” bank that caters to Democratic donors in “Big Tech.”

While the GOP was traditionally aligned with business, its ascendant populist wing seems more interested in punishing corporations on the wrong side of the culture wars than in stabilizing the industry — at least while the party is out of power and doesn’t bear responsibility for the fallout.

“Republicans will likely frame this bankruptcy and subsequent bailout as class warfare. It’s East Palestine versus Silicon Valley,” said Sam Geduldig, a Republican lobbyist, referring to the site of a recent train crash in Ohio that Republicans accused the Biden administration of ignoring. “We can’t get into a situation where there’s red banks and blue banks, and unfortunately, that’s exactly where we are.”

Geduldig noted, for instance, that Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the chairman of the Banking Committee, faces a tough re-election next year. “Republican campaign operatives are absolutely going to prosecute the case that Brown gave nothing to East Palestine and everything to Silicon Valley Bank.”