If Zuckerberg runs for president he will win
Here’s why that’s true and what it means for politics
There is a seismic shift happening in American politics.
As the tectonic plates collide, new mountains emerge on our political landscape.
Internal upheaval plagues both major parties. 2018’s midterm elections will lead to a congressional makeover.
For better or worse, Trump has redefined what it means to be president. The doors are open wide for all manner of speculation as to which celebrities will run for president in 2020.
Out of all of the possible candidates, the one I see as most viable and impactful is Mark Zuckerberg.
Bloggers and journalists are speculating more frequently about his potential political plans.
From his Harvard commencement speech, to his nationwide meet-and-greet road trip,Zuckerberg has been looking more and more like a confident public figure. He’s even hired former Obama campaign staffers to aid in his philanthropic efforts.
This has forced me to ponder a series of important questions:
- Is it ethical for the CEO of the most powerful media company in the world to run for president?
- What would Zuckerberg’s election mean for American politics?
- Do ethics even matter in politics?
In short: no, a massive paradigm shift, probably not.
You all deserve a more detailed explanation of those answers, though.
- Is it ethical for the CEO of the most powerful media company in the world to run for president?
Facebook’s impact on politics has been a hot topic for the past year.
There were a number of controversies related to bias in the news feed and fake ads from foreign sources during this election. We’re still dealing with fallout from the ad scandal.
Facebook shows no signs of scaling back its involvement with political advertising, though.
As the man in charge of Facebook, Zuckerberg’s decisions have a profound impact on our collective consciousness. He can reshape our understanding of reality by mediating the information we use to navigate the modern world.
It terrifies me to think of how that would be weaponized in a presidential campaign.
It doesn’t matter whether Trump, Clinton, Winfrey, Ryan, Warren, Sanders, Turner, or Steyer runs against him. Their propaganda capabilities are nothing compared to Zuckerberg’s.
No one understands the inner workings of modern media like Zuckerberg and his team. No one could possibly manipulate the news more than them.
Facebook actually has a built in system of political categorization. Facebook tracks every ad you interact with to build up a profile of your interests and attitudes. It’s far more sensitive and comprehensive than any political party’s voter database.
When the dust has settled after the Russian ad scandal and Facebook’s new security is in place, he will also understand the new rules of the game better than anyone else.
A tool this powerful is unheard of in American politics.
I can’t imagine a world where Zuckerberg, or at least his close associates at Facebook, would not use the news feed to tailor what information people get.
Even if he “officially” steps down as CEO to run in 2020, his involvement with Facebook is so deep that he will never truly be gone.
I feel like it would benefit us to just start the ethics investigation now.
If Zuckerberg runs for president, he or someone close to him will manipulate Facebook algorithms to help his campaign. We probably won’t realize it until after the election, though, just like the Russian ads.
That is obviously a massive breach of ethics.
There’s another ethics issue, though, that’s a bit more nuanced.
It’s a new issue that was never this relevant until we had a prominent businessman running for president.
Midway through the election, analysts struck up a fierce debate about what should happen with Trump’s business assets if he’s elected.
There was massive controversy over Trump’s business ties and whether or not he would use his power to benefit himself and his business ties.
One side said he should put his business in a blind trust. The other side defended Trump’s right to put it in his children’s hands.
As it stands, Trumps two eldest sons run the business along with their trusted CFO.
So far, the GOP’s actions have served to directly benefit Trump and his fellow business people. The recent tax bill, for example, disproportionately benefited rich people like Trump.
While it may seem like Zuckerberg would be forced to step down from his position at Facebook when he runs for president, that’s not necessarily the case.
Facebook restructured its shareholder agreements in 2016 in a way that will allow him to remain on Facebook’s board while working in government.
That means that Zuckerberg will simultaneously be president and a board member of the most influential media platform ever, as long as the other board members vote to allow it.
I can’t see why they wouldn’t, because this would regularly put them in the room with this country’s most influential decision maker.
There’s really no reason other than public opinion that a businessman would not run for president.
All objections that people raised about Trump’s business ties were from Democrats, who are historically less business-friendly than Republicans. As long as few enough people are concerned about Zuckerberg’s business ties he will have no trouble running for president.
By the end of Trump’s term we will have a clearer picture of the relationship between a former businessman president and his business assets.
It’s important to have a discussion about whether or not its ethical for a businessman to run for President. That power can easily be abused for personal benefit.
In my opinion, the president’s primary obligation should be to the entire public, not ones own financial benefits. Zuckerberg’s constituency lives within Facebook’s walls, and they’re the most likely to benefit from his presidency.
His past and future commitments would be an obstacle to him truly serving the American people.
2. What would Zuckerberg’s election mean for American politics?
Trump and Zuckerberg are both businessmen with political aspirations.
The key difference between them, however, is that Trump is an aging relic of another era, while Zuckerberg is a key player in the modern world.
Zuckerberg’s influence and intellect far outstrip Trump’s. It’s like Bobby Fischer playing chess with a middle school checkers champion.
As president, he will have a finely crafted strategy, a team of legitimate experts, and a deep understanding of modern technology.
Most importantly, Zuckerberg is used to basing his actions on carefully calculated metrics and analytics. This is key to how he operates.
Where Trump acts with bluster and bravado, Zuckerberg will proceed in precise steps and polished public appearances.
“A lot of people already associate Zuckerberg with something they like — Facebook. That alone is enough to get a lot of people to vote for him”
Although the two are both businessmen, the nature of their businesses is different as well.
Trump’s real estate deals involved heavy manipulation of public opinion and the mass media, which were newspapers and television at the time. His contracts were between him and other developers, though.
Zuckerberg’s contract is directly with the public who uses his platform, though. He has much more of a commitment than Trump ever did as a businessman to act in the public’s interest. If he missteps too much, we will inevitably leave Facebook for its competitors.
Zuckerberg already has experience dealing with the public and being held accountable for his actions. A huge part of being president is taking heat, and Marky Mark is getting better at that every day.
Not only does he have experience with public affairs, but he has international diplomatic experience.
His recent failure, Free Basics, involved meetings with India’s prime minister, a massive public utility project, and a lot of complicated negotiations.
Although the project was widely criticized, Zuckerberg got his feet wet with international diplomacy. He’s now even more of a player on the world stage.
The Zuckerberg administration would contrast dramatically with Trump’s.
It would be calculated, far more efficient, and data-driven in a way that we’ve never seen before.
In the interest of growing Facebook’s audience globally, he might enact laws that make international business easier and more profitable.
He might open up even more tax loopholes that allow corporations like his to hide profits abroad.
His cabinet would also be filled with business-minded technocrats who would help him create an economic environment where the tech world’s interests come first.
Zuckerberg will meet with tech industry leaders like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to plan out a tech-driven future where we’re largely dependent on their products. He might even make it easier for Elon Musk to pursue his massive projects like the Hyperloop.
Whether this will be good or bad remains to be seen. Many people criticize the worldview that Musk and other technocrats endorse, but their vision is gaining more traction every day.
Zuckerberg’s status as a businessman means that he looks out for himself before he looks out for other people.
Even though he runs a public corporation, he is not a public servant. He serves himself and Facebook’s investors.
But what’s his voting base?
One of the most important questions surrounding his possible campaign is which political party Zuckerberg would choose to run with.
The obvious choice might be the Democrats, given Facebook’s seemingly progressive leanings.
People tend to think of American politics as an exclusively two-party system, even though it is not excplicitly so. Upon real examination the closest analogue to Zuckerberg in our political history is an independent from the 90’s — Ross Perot.
Perot, like Zuckerberg, was CEO of a billion-dollar tech business. He used his influence and powers of persuasion that he gained during his career to run the most successful third-party presidential campaign ever.
Perot showed us that there is a genuine hunger for policies outside of those offered by the two main parties. Trump’s victory showed us that people are still hungry for outsider thinking.
Now, in 2020, Zuckerberg will respond to that hunger with the most technologically sophisticated political campaign ever.
Zuckerberg will use his outsider status and media influence to completely bulldoze the political establishment.
He almost doesn’t even need to campaign. A lot of people already associate Zuckerberg with something they like — Facebook. That alone is enough to get a lot of people to vote for him.
If Zuckerberg runs and wins in 2020 it will result in a total overhaul of our political system.
The tech industry’s political ethos has become more clear in recent years. It’s a mix of liberal social standards and libertarian (de)regulatory practices.
As tech takes over more and more of our lives, the tech industry will have more and more political clout.
Democrats and Republicans will steadily lose power and influence under president Zuckerberg. 2020 might be that last election where these political behemoths are relevant.
He will reform the executive branch to be data-driven at an unprecedented level.
As I mentioned before, tech plutocrats like Bezos and Musk will be influential in policy decisions, whether or not they are officially cabinet members.
Zuckerberg will reshape America in Facebook’s image, and it seems likely that that will push us towards the world of Ready Player One.
The technocratic takeover will be underway the second he wins.
These are more predictions than they are ethical concerns. There is nothing explicitly unethical about promoting business interests as president.
It’s important for us to consider possible outcomes of his rise to power now, though, before the media cranks up the political carousel for another rotation.
3. Do ethics even matter in politics?
The final question is larger and dicier than any I’ve ever tried to answer before.
It’s hard to tell how much and whether or not ethics matter in politics. Ethics are so subjective, and change so much over time, that it’s almost impossible to answer that question.
Each individual has a unique ethical framework, whether or not they’ve consciously thought about it. These frameworks shape our realities, and it can be hard to imagine that other people’s ethics might be completely different from ours.
We all remember the shock when we first heard that voters chose Trump.
Many people were left wonder how someone so blatantly unethical could win the election. Many people saw no ethical concerns at all with Trump’s election.
Ethics has a squishy role in politics.
Ethics matters far less than public opinion. Despite Trump’s many ethical issues, there were enough voters who decided that he was fit for office. That’s enough to become president.
This is how I would sum up the role of ethics in a politician’s life:
Do what ever you want. You will be successful as long as you make enough money to pay good lawyers and can apologize sincerely whether or not you mean it.
-Jeremy Cummings
That sounds bleak but unless you mess up as frequently and heinously as Anthony Weiner you can probably still save your political career.
In many ways ethical rules in congress take on a similar role to the pirate code in Pirates of the Carribean.
There are plenty of ethical lawmakers, however.
John McCain, as much as I disagree with his politics, is a paragon of congressional ethics. There is also a growing number of “Justice Democrats” who have made an ethical commitment to never accept corporate campaign donations.
John McCain is on his way out, though, from congress and life unfortunately. Justice Democrats are also still a minority within their party at this point.
On a congressional level and below, your ethics have to match those of your constituents. It’s different on the presidential level, though.
Ethical norms vary widely from state to state. The grand sum of all of our values is a big beautiful gray area.
If Mark Zuckerberg can convince enough people to make him president, it doesn’t matter what he does. Ethics go out the window if our democracy says so.
It’s important to remember that there are no explicit ethics outlined in the constitution. According to Article II, all you need to do to qualify yourself for the presidency is be born in America and make it to 35.
Beyond that, fitness for office is decided entirely by how many votes you can win.
All of the ethical concerns I raised in this article are insignificant to people with different backgrounds and values.
Mark Zuckerberg, the architect of modern communication, the man behind the media, the first digital statesman, can do no wrong if the people say he’s their president.
I’m confident that he could convince America to do that.
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