The race to become the Democratic nominee
to take on Donald Trump at next year's US presidential election
rumbles on with a field of candidates gradually being
winnowed down.
I was recently going over some campaign finance data,
and one thing in particular jumped out at me.
Among the most generous donors to the campaign of the leftwing
firebrand Bernie Sanders were employees
of Google, who have so far donated around $135,000
to the Vermont senator.
But even more surprisingly, Google employees
make up the single biggest group of donors
for Elizabeth Warren, the senator who says she actually
wants to break up their employer and other large tech companies.
So why are people who work for some of the world's largest
tech companies actively supporting candidates who say
they want to dismantle them?
Well, in recent media interviews some Google MPs
have said they think it would help their company
to be a bit smaller.
It could make it more nimble, more efficient,
more innovative.
But something larger is also going on here.
There is a growing rift between people
who work in Silicon Valley and the bosses they work for.
Nowhere was this more apparent than last year
when tens of thousands of Google employees
helped push the company to reverse its decision
to work with the US military on its artificial intelligence
capabilities.
The Google employees said they didn't
want the company becoming involved in what they
called the business of war.
Well, to push the company to reverse one project
is one thing.
But if they successfully help bring about its actual breakup,
that would be one of the most astonishing displays of worker
power I can think of.