The most useful thing about the Atari Democrats is that their name contained their mistake. Atari sounded like the future in the early 1980s: computers, chips, California. It was a perfect symbol for a group of Democrats who wanted their party to stop mourning the industrial economy and start speaking the language of the information age. But Atari was also a warning. By the time the label stuck, the company had already begun shifting manufacturing overseas. The brand that gave Democrats a name for modernity was also showing them how modernity could leave workers behind.
For people who work in foresight, the Atari Democrats are a case study in how a narrative about the future can be directionally right and institutionally disastrous.
