My mother and I both worked in aerospace in California for extended periods (though never at the same firms). She went from being a moderate Republican (when there was such a thing) to being a strong socialist. I’m a social democrat, but have moved farther to the left than I was in my 20s.

I’ve seen former aerospace colleagues abandon rightwing politics too: not enough of them, but more than I would have expected. And we’re the kind of people who know military strategy and how to design weapons systems.