
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr revealed that his running mate for the presidency was Nicole Shanahan, ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergei Brin, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the usual suspects. Although Shanahan is successful in her own right (she founded her own patent analytics company in 2013, five years before she married Brin) the fact that someone with such close ties to the Silicon Valley elite was joining the Kennedy apostate in his Quixotic campaign was regarded by many as a betrayal of the progressive ethos of Silicon Valley. The fact that it was announced in Oakland, less than 10 miles away from San Francisco, only added insult to injury: it was like a direct assault on the citadel.