This is a PR disaster for YC. It sends a strong signal that YC is actually a political organization and not one based on merit. By making this decision, YC alienates founders who are Republicans, and disturbs anyone else who thinks that YC should be politically neutral. Because we can never know if a YC evaluator will look at an applicant's twitter feed and discount the applicant because of their political leanings (shades of Brendan Eich), applicants who are Republicans will either have to hide their affiliations, or simply not apply to YC.
Indeed. One would expect that Sam and other YC leaders did carefully consider the implications, and the consequences.
The following will probably mark me as persona non grata with some people at YC.
I find American politics abhorrent, including both parties. The president's policies have been and are abhorrent, too. Further, the notion that one would pay tens of thousands of dollars for such an event is profoundly disgusting. Part of what is wrong with politics in this country is that kind of money.
As for those who claim that it's politics as usual, that one must play along -- when did conformity become justification?
