Google’s Brin Asks Mitt Romney And Barack Obama To Go Independent

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Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) co-founder, Sergey Brin, whose company has previously made headlines for its political donations, is taking Tuesday’s election results seriously. He has reached out via Google+  to ask this year’s winning political candidates to take some additional action, other than voting and thank you speeches.

Google's Brin Asks Mitt Romney And Barack Obama To Go Independent

Brin posted the following message after midnight on Monday and asked Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and other 2012 candidates to contemplate withdrawing from their political parties if they win, after all the votes come due and serve as an independents.

Here’s the message via Google+:

I must confess, I am dreading today’s elections.
Not because of who might win or lose.
Not because as a Californian, my vote for President will count 1/3 as much as an Alaskan (actually it won’t matter at all — I’m not in a swing state).
Not because my vote for Senate will count 1/50 as much as an Alaskan.

But because no matter what the outcome, our government will still be a giant bonfire of partisanship.  It is ironic since whenever I have met with our elected officials they are invariably thoughtful, well-meaning people.  And yet collectively 90% of their effort seems to be focused on how to stick it to the other party.

So my plea to the victors — whoever they might be: please withdraw from your respective parties and govern as independents in name and in spirit.  It is probably the biggest contribution you can make to the country.

[If you agree, pass it on to your newly elected officials.]

For those who have followed Brin and his executives, this isn’t the first time there’s been complaints of political workings.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt testified in front of Congress in 2011 about antitrust issues last year and afterwards in a Washington Post interview, voiced his discontent with the disconnect he sees between Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley.

As for Brin, according to CNET, he comes from a family of refuseniks who left the Soviet Union when he was a boy. He has taken a top role in issues affecting censorship while at Google. This has included Google’s 2010 withdrawal to operate in China and 2011’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Brin is partisan and has donated money with contributions of more than $30,000 to the Democratic party and in October 2011, to the Obama campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Is his message likely to spur action? Probably not, considering the U.S. government is set up with bipartisanship, but you have to applaud his efforts to take action in a public forum. If he can affect change in technology, maybe he can make political changes.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock is down 0.11% today to $682.20.

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