"I consider Elon Musk to be a greater threat to American democracy than are Chinese auto workers. America has slid into an oligarchy and a majority of voters seem content with it."
From my short post on Sunday about BYD electric cars
I thought the most controversial thing I wrote yesterday was that Coors beer tastes like Bud Light or rainwater. I thought some beer drinkers would disagree. None did.
I consider it undeniable that Elon Musk has entered a realm of political power not seen in America for a century. He is an oligarch, a person whose wealth and businesses have quasi-governmental power. He is openly and publicly a partner in government. He tells GOP congressmen what to do and threatens them, combining the power of association with Donald Trump with unlimited wealth he is willing to deploy in a campaign for or against them. He is a private citizen, but has been commissioned to find programs to cut or eliminate. He receives multi-billion dollar NASA contracts and subsidies for the cars Tesla makes. He is on both sides of government, both making and taking. He is an insider.
Musk is first among several in the new group of oligarchs. Even the poorer of them, ones with less than $100 billion, have influence. Trump joined many others in saying China-owned TikTok was dangerous to national security and should be banned. That was consistent with Trump's overall anti-China orientation. Then an American multi-billionaire, Jeff Yass, who owns a 15 percent stake in TikTok's parent company, made a huge campaign contribution to Trump. Yass said TikTok was harmless. Trump promptly reversed himself. This is crony capitalism. This is oligarch power.
Trump isn't hiding it. Indeed, openly acknowledging the influence of oligarchs means everyone knows the rules of the game. Trump did not change because of arguments from legislators or by formal opposition from a branch of government. Jeff Yass talked to him.
American companies learned there is a tribute price to pay to be on Trump's good side. For Disney's ABC, with asset sales pending potentially subject to anti-trust rules, it was $15 million. For rank-and-file corporations, it is $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund. They each contribute. They don't want to be left out in the cold.
Musk has well-known interests. Tesla manufactures and sells cars in China. He needs our tariff policies to address that relationship. Musk owns cyber currencies; he has interests involving financial regulation. His Twitter/X competes with TikTok and has interests regarding net neutrality and deep fakes. His Space/X is the prime contractor for NASA. His companies hire software engineers from India under the H1-B program. Foreign employees on visas are cheaper and they cannot switch to a new employer for higher pay. To the disappointment of the MAGA supporters who thought he wanted immigration policies that protected American workers, Trump said he supports keeping and expanding the H1-B program.
In Republican/MAGA circles, Musk's influence must not be disparaged. I had said Musk's unaccountable influence is a risk to democracy. That caused a reaction. I received this comment shortly after posting:
I consider the intemperance of the comment silly, but it is apparently an honest emotion, and we can learn from it. Musk is good. Musk must be defended. Can't I see that the real danger to democracy is from people who call out crony power? Now that it is Trump's swamp, the swamp is good.
The blog comment demonstrates the second sentence of the headline quote that headlined this post. Some Americans are content to have private wealth share power with democratic leaders.
I had thought that both old-school and MAGA Republicans might understand the threat that oligarchs pose to conservative values and policy interests. I may have miscalculated. Maybe they presume that whatever is good for influence-wielding billionaires is good for America, and that crony capitalism is good, so long as Trump is in the mix. After all, Trump will be in charge. No. That is the crucial difference between a mere wealthy person and a multi-billionaire oligarch in a swampy government. Most people are subject to the law. Oligarchs are different. Laws are made by them and for them. They don't just have friends in high places. They are the high places.
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Are Musk's policy goals regarding China manufacturing, immigration, net neutrality, defense contracts, communication satellites, social platform algorithms, Medicare and Social Security funding, and the national debt, coincident with the national interest? Most people would say no, but they need not be for Musk to have power and influence. A political orb with $480 billion creates its own gravity, and its own legion of popular support.
I had thought that both old-school and MAGA Republicans might understand the threat that oligarchs pose to conservative values and policy interests. I may have miscalculated. Maybe they presume that whatever is good for influence-wielding billionaires is good for America, and that crony capitalism is good, so long as Trump is in the mix. After all, Trump will be in charge. No. That is the crucial difference between a mere wealthy person and a multi-billionaire oligarch in a swampy government. Most people are subject to the law. Oligarchs are different. Laws are made by them and for them. They don't just have friends in high places. They are the high places.
[Note: To receive this blog daily by email, go to: https://petersage.substack.com Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]
14 comments:
"He is on both sides of government, both getting and taking."
That doesn't sound like "both sides" to me. What about "giving"? What does he, or the others, contribute to the common good? Does it benefit, or detract?
An example: on a recent cruise, I learned (on the last day) that the excellent wifi we'd all enjoyed on the ship was Starlink. I had mixed feelings about part of my cruise fee going to Elon Musk, but I had to admit the service was good. I also think it's good if Starlink is available to Ukraine to help them fight their war. But what if he decides to arbitrarily shut it off in Ukraine to benefit Putin?
Bottom line: too much money, and power, in the hands of one individual-- whether it be a Musk, a Soros, or Dr. Evil-- is not a Good Thing.
good catch. Corrected to say "making and taking". He mostly takes. What he makes is self-interested,.
Elon Musk is dependent upon government subsidies in order to achieve success. It makes sense that he would try to ingratiate himself with the Trump administration in order to continue getting favorable treatment. How many large corporations, like Facebook and Amazon.com have contributed millions to the Trump Inauguration Committee in order to gain favor? This is why corporations run America. They can afford to buy politicians, and you can't.
Powerful men (mostly men) have always governed the US from behind the veil of capitalism, from preindustrial to today: monopolies or near monopolies like Oil and Gas, Coal, Tobacco, Steel, Aluminum (Kaiser), Rail, automotive, Aviation, defense, energy, timber, concrete (yeah it’s huge and essential) communications (Bell).and of course Financial “services”. Everyone has their thumb on the scales. We are both beholden to and benefit from their uncomfortable dominance.
Cognitive dissonance is the natural state of the Republican mind anymore. What can you say about people who imagine a pussy-grabbing pathological liar will make America great. As far as they’re concerned, being “fair and balanced” requires giving equal consideration to “alternative facts.”
If the current Republican ruling elites diverge too far from the interests of the American people, the American people will kick the party out of office and elect a different party.
This time around, voters didn’t like what the Democrats had done both with the economy and with cultural issues like DEI and identity politics. If the current Republicans go as wrong as the Democrats have, they too will lose elections and get kicked out of office.
I suspect we are in one of those rare times in American history, where the two-party system restructures itself and becomes two different parties. Trump has already transformed the Republican Party from the party of the financial elites into a populist working class party. Now it’s time for the Democrats to restructure themselves into something that has a chance of appealing to a majority of the voters. My vote would be for them to drop the extreme identity politics that made them vulnerable to Trump‘s most effective campaign ad, the one that ended:
Kamala’s for they/them; Trump is for you.
Perhaps ElonMusk has too much power, but given what he has accomplished in the realm of space, this country would be in much worse shape without him, to say nothing of the survival of our species if something catastrophic happened to Earth, but we had colonies on the Moon and Mars.
Geniuses like Elon Musk are a rare and valuable occurrence. We don’t get that many of them per century.
Republicans are very much engaged in identity politics. It's called White nationalism.
Michael, I think that will only be true if Trump and his cronies are unsuccessful at deconstructing Democracy. “Many people” (as Trump often says) think the 2024 vote was a referendum on the kind of Permanent Putin-styled leadership. What do you think?
Given the propensity of woke ideology to promote rank discrimination against white males, it’s not surprising that this benighted policy has resulted in a backlash.
How about not discriminating against any racial group?
I keep forgetting us poor Whites are the ones being discriminated against, probably because I've never seen any evidence of it.
Poor whites fought and died in the Civil War to preserve the enslavement of Black people because those with money and power convinced them it was necessary to "preserve their way of life". Now, those with money and power have convinced enough people to vote for a felon who attempted to overthrow the government; again, in order to "preserve their way of life". The sky didn't fall when human slavery was abolished, and it won't fall if steps are taken to bring equality to everyone, but people who are susceptible to fear-mongering are convinced that it will. Convincing them otherwise can seem impossible so it's hard to be optimistic. It's possible we will lose our democracy so that rich white men can keep their money and power.
MT, Elon Musk is not a genius. He just has enough inherited wealth to hire smart people to work for him, and these people have made his businesses succeed.
Elon Musk arrived in Canada from South Africa with nothing. He did not achieve what he has achieved via inherited wealth.
And he was the visionary who thought he could actually achieve rocket boosters that land and can be reused. No one else thought this was achievable, and no one else has achieved it.
If you want to see something truly amazing, watch the latest Super Heavy booster lunch, currently scheduled for Friday at 2:00 PM Pacific time. If the return and landing work, you will get to see a 20 story building-sized rocket booster come falling back down out of the sky, stop itself and hover and be caught by two “chopsticks” sticking out from the launching pad tower. I watched this happen in November, and was totally blown away.
You could read Walter Isaacson‘s biography of Musk if you want to understand who he actually is, and not what anti-Musk propaganda wants you to think. The book is not all positive, and it seems to be a fair description of Musk to me.
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