Salon: We picked the wrong billionaire: The case for Mark Zuckerberg 2020

Many recent news reports suggest that Zuck is in the running. There’s convincing evidence. He has said he will visit all 50 states this year. He hired former Obama campaign wiz David Plouffe to run policy and advocacy at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. He’s been more politically active in recent years, especially on the issue of immigration, through his lobbyist group FWD.us. He’s backing away from atheism. Of course, the most compelling evidence is the fact that he’s denied being interested in the job, writing a flat out “No” to BuzzFeed last month in an email exchange. Denial is the ultimate baller politician move — with bonus points if he changes his mind in a couple years after praying about it.

His vision for an interconnected earth isn’t necessarily a bad one. It’s really still in a nascent phase, from a historical perspective. So, there’s much to learn about how his business and philanthropy and political efforts will impact society. Whether Zuck launches a campaign or not, he’ll still be in a position of enormous power and he won’t be perfect. But as the de facto figurehead of the next generation, he and his work could mature into something profound and healing for the whole planet along the likes of something we’ve never seen before. If he ran for president and won, it could usher in the millennial era and legitimize it at the institutional level, clearing a path for peers to follow. It would draw a line in the sand between the new and old worlds. [...]

When I think about the politicians likely to get in on the 2020 race, I don’t know that I see anyone other than Zuck who could reset the Obama Era order — or actually innovate beyond it by bridging the gap between the lightning pace of technological change and bureaucracy. It is essential to do the work of ending oppression, but it might be easier to dismantle oppressive institutions under a millennial who has already successfully dismantled institutions. Sure, he’s a privileged Ivy League white guy and many of us want that era of dominance to be over, but it’s hard to argue that he’s actively looking to reinforce that legacy. If anything, while at times flawed in his logic and in need of education, he believes he is creating empathy at the local and global level — and there is ample evidence that it’s working. President Zuckerberg feels like more of an extension of what President Obama’s coalition was building than what Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or John Kasich ever offered. I love Deval Patrick, for example, but could he halt this crazy train like Mark Zuckerberg might?

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