I have long argued that the concentration of great wealth in the hands of a few undermines our democracy.
Elon Musk is emblematic of those concerns.
Wealth is most dangerous when it is transformed into political power.
One way Musk is turning his enormous wealth into political power is commit $45 million/month New Super PACs It was founded and funded in May by other tech oligopolies.
Just how much money Musk is shelling out for Trump may never be known. He declared An aversion to organizations that must legally disclose their donors. Musk prefers to wield political power through dark money.
The second way Musk is turning his wealth into political power is by posting pro-Trump, anti-Kamala Harris messages to his 189 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The reason Musk has 189 million followers is because he owns X. He can tweak the algorithm to maximize exposure for his tweets, effectively buying and acquiring huge numbers of X users.
Shortly after Biden dropped out of the race, Musk mocked Biden, Criticize Harris said: Support for Trump.
Musk retweeted a tweet from former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Said“We’re not fighting the candidates. We’re fighting the system.”
Musk also tweeted a video explaining Harris’ pronouns and appearance for accessibility for the blind and visually impaired. With caption Posted: “Imagine this going on for four years…”
Musk also retweeted, QAnon-related influencers“Democrats are destroying our democracy in their pursuit of power,” he tweeted in response to Biden’s resignation letter. Anti-Defamation League X highlighted the influencer as one of the “extremists and conspiracy theorists” it had allowed back onto the platform.
Many X users Complained On the platform, users reported they could no longer follow the @KamalaHQ account, the official breaking news page for the vice president’s presidential campaign, and were instead shown a message saying they had reached a “following limit” and could not follow any more accounts at this time.
Trump is clearly pleased with Musk. He reportedly said: Recruitment If President Trump is re-elected, the billionaire will serve in an advisory role within his administration.
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In all these ways, Musk and Trump appear to be plunging into a spiral of wealth and power that will undermine American democracy and the rule of law.
Perhaps we should call it “The Mumps” – the union of two rich and famous narcissists who crave attention, lie constantly, enjoy provoking criticism, hate unions, refuse to take responsibility for anything and have a total contempt for democracy.
Towards the end of America’s first Gilded Age, the famous American jurist Louis Brandeis said, “We must make a choice. We can either have democracy or the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both at the same time.”
Musk is a testament to the truth of Brandeis’ insight in this time of America’s second Gilded Age.
If Harris and the Democrats regain power, high on their legislative list should be a wealth tax to make it impossible for future mumps generations to use their vast wealth to undermine our democracy.
If a wealth tax is politically infeasible, an alternative would be to repeal the “stepped-up basis” specific tax rules that allow people who inherit large fortunes to avoid paying a penny in capital gains tax.
In the meantime, what can we do about Musk? Use your economic power. Boycott Tesla, tell advertisers to boycott X.
