RFK Jr.'s VP pick is an affront to democracy
Why Nicole Shanahan? Not because there is any wisp of an argument she should be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Because she has gobs of money and can single-handedly fund his campaign.
Two weeks ago I argued national pollsters should not include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent candidate, in their presidential trial heats until we had more reason to believe he would appear on most state ballots.
As part of my argument, I cited reports that Kennedy's vice presidential search was zeroing in on two "fundamentally unserious ... bona fide kooks": anti-vaccine football player Aaron Rodgers and wrestler-turned-governor-turned-conspiracy-theorist Jesse Ventura.
Today, Kennedy announced his pick who is as ridiculously unqualified as Rodgers or Ventura yet lacking their celebrity wattage: 38-year-old attorney Nicole Shanahan.
Why? Not because there is any wisp of an argument she should be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Because she has gobs of money and can single-handedly fund his campaign.
More about this debasement of democracy, but first, here's what's leading the Washington Monthly website:
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Shanahan came from an impoverished childhood to become a lawyer who created and sold a tech company that specialized in patent management software. She became insanely rich after marrying mega-billionaire Google co-founder Sergey Brin, then used those riches to launch a philanthropic foundation called Bia-Echo. The foundation funds fertility research, criminal justice reform projects, and climate change initiatives, particularly regarding agriculture.
Shanahan and Brin divorced last year following a Wall Street Journal report of an affair between Shanahan and Elon Musk, which the two deny.
This all makes for a mildly interesting Silicon Valley soap opera, but hardly amounts to a resume that's presidential-caliber.
What qualifies her, in Kennedy's eyes, is her checkbook. Exactly what Shanahan got in the divorce settlement is unknown, but clearly it is not chump change. For example, she didn't flinch at funneling $4 million through a Kennedy-affiliated Super PAC to produce a campaign ad that aired during the Super Bowl.
Picking a running mate solely because of an ability to bankroll a campaign is highly unusual but not completely unprecedented.
In 1980 the Libertarian Party and its presidential nominee Ed Clark turned to oil industry titan David Koch, who explicitly offered "several hundred thousand dollars" of his money as a way to get around campaign finance laws. He ended up kicking in $2.1 million, helping the party notch 50 state ballot lines for the first time.
No doubt Kennedy is trying to do the same with Shanahan. But doing so involves far more hypocrisy.
Kennedy launched his campaign saying, "Americans are angry at being left out, left behind, swindled, cheated and belittled by a smug elite that has rigged the system in its favor."
Kennedy, of course, was born into the elite.
Being rich does not disqualify anyone for the presidency or vice presidency, though typically candidates must prove to the electorate their personal merits with a resume of public service or exceptional business acumen. (Donald Trump's claims of business acumen have been proven fraudulent, but nevertheless, that's what he used to become the only president without any experience in government or military office.)
Kennedy himself fails the test. He's only gotten as far as he has by coasting on the name of his famous father and his lifelong connections to other members of the wealthy elite. Without that, he'd be just one more of the hundreds of crackpots who file the paperwork to run for president.
Now he's tapping a far richer member of that elite to be one of the most powerful people in the world, not because of any exceptional achievements in her own right, but because she has the money to fund his campaign.
This is a perversion of democracy, and a smug one at that.
Kennedy has the right to run alongside whomever he wants. But the media and the polling industry have no obligation to treat his ticket like a serious campaign, especially when he remains so far behind in ballot access.
Maybe Shanahan's money helps him get on ballots. Maybe the Libertarian Party, which has a strong record of ballot access, bails him out with its nomination.
But until that point, we should treat Kennedy like all the other crackpots running futile presidential campaigns–by ignoring him.
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Best,
Bill Scher, Washington Monthly Politics Editor