the platform owns you.

For the past year, probably the most oft-asked question has been “Will you ever run for office again?” My answer is somewhere between “no” and “probably not.” To be fair, this was my answer throughout the campaign — the only way I knew to not become a politician, would be…well, to not…become a politician.

I saw a quote this week that just floored me. It was so deeply incisive. Here it is:

…David Frum, former George W. Bush speechwriter and once-prominent neoconservative, … “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us,” he said. “Now we’re discovering that we work for Fox.”

That’s from an article on the media and Sam Zell.

Think about that.

Republicans originally thought that Fox news worked for us
There was this jubilation on the right and this great fear and loathing on the left with the ascendance of Fox News. This incredibly clear, forceful, loud voice was helping to drive the very goals and agenda items that Republicans had seemingly laid out. Essentially Fox was helping to sell the Republican agenda.

Now we’re discovering that we work for Fox.
The above is great when the message is reinforces the very message that Republicans wanted and supported the eventual goal they aimed for. But eventually a crazy thing happened, which is the weird world we live in. Fox at some point (I wonder if we could find the moment?) shifted the line to their ideology. So instead of settling for taking cues and helping to support an agenda, they set the damn agenda. Their narrative fueled what the people demanded, which would in turn become what the Republican party had to deliver. They now work for Fox news.

As an aside, this has corollaries to the tech world where the discussion today is dependence on platforms. Things like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are platforms on which you build your business on top of. The Republican party, in some ways, has built their business on top of the Fox News platform. And, while there’s a variety of reasons why it’s occurred, their far, and in many ways absurd tilt to the extreme-right, Fox eating the Republican party is some major part of it. Or at least this theory sits right in my gut at this second.

So back to the question I started with and why I brought up the quote. It just affirmed to me this notion that highest impact right now is not necessarily running for an office, but shaping the discussion. Folks like Fox and other pundits and “broadcasters” have, in my opinion, the biggest role to play in what happens. Things are still headed to shit in my opinion. Obama, the magical 2010 Republican congressional class, and everyone else have done nothing to change this. As my irritation and rage smolder, I now think about how I can help shape this narrative. So that’s what where my mind is.