Elon Musk's Next Failure
- Karl Johansson
- för 5 dagar sedan
- 4 min läsning
Elon Musk is claiming he'll start a new political party. It will never go anywhere.
Elon Musk is clearly bad at politics. Not only has he managed to fall out with president Trump who previously seemed to really heed Musk’s advice, he has now decided to shut down any hopes of rekindling his bromance with Trump by claiming that he will form a new party which would be a rival to Trump’s Republicans. If there is one thing we know about Donald Trump it is that he is good at holding grudges. I think this new America Party is just bluster, and I think it has about the chances of making a real political impact that Kanye West’s bid for the presidency did. The reasons why are twofold.
Firstly, American democratic systems are built in a way to produce and retain a two party system. Until America stops using a first-past-the-post system with single mandate districts it will continue to produce a two party structure. Musk’s America Party then would have to displace either the Democratic or Republican parties to have a chance, and while that is theoretically possible, especially in certain areas, it is never going to nationally overtake one of the mainstream parties. In fact, if the America Party ever actually fields a candidate it will serve mainly to split the vote on the right, effectively benefitting the Democrats, a party which Musk has ranted about plenty on his Twitter.
Secondly, a hypothetical America Party would be centred around Musk himself, and it would take significant time to develop a credible ideological foundation separate from Musk. Musk is a high profile person who has plenty of fans (and plenty of detractors including me) which is an asset in any political campaign, however, he is also not born in the USA which would make him ineligible for the presidency. I find it difficult to believe that Musk will be able to convince American voters to split their vote between congress and the presidency, and I highly doubt Musk has the humility required to let someone else be the presidential candidate for his party.
For someone who is so sure of his own genius I find Musk’s foray into politics to have been curiously fruitless. If you listen to the man himself he has solutions for everything, and swears that engineers and entrepreneurs are better suited to governing than politicians. Yet his beloved DOGE has almost completely stalled – and it did not manage anything close to what he had promised when it was still active – and his privileged position in Trump’s inner circle could not help him convince the president of the need for fiscal responsibility. Neither did the implicit threat of withdrawing the prodigious funding for Republican campaigns. Why would forming a party work when none of his other bright ideas have worked?
I freely admit that I am looking forward to seeing this America Party crash and burn, but I fear that it will instead peter out quietly. Musk has some of the qualities of a politician, especially if you subscribe to the cynical view that politicians are only looking out for themselves. Musk is the master of overpromising and underdelivering, has a pathological need for attention, and is one of the most self-important people on the planet. To some that sounds just like a politician.
If he really wanted to make changes in America I think there is a lot Musk can do. Being the richest man on the planet means that he has quite a bit of room to help the country mend its public finances. He could stop accepting governmental subsidies for his companies, for example. He could also pay off a chunk of the national debt too. Probably not enough to make a huge difference, but still. Instead, he claims to be launching a new initiative which will inevitably serve to give him personally more attention and fame while never actually having to make difficult decisions or compromise. I’ll bet anyone reading this that Musk’s new party will not care enough about fiscal responsibility to raise taxes on Musk himself or any of his companies. Feel free to email me at karlix.johansson@gmail.com if you want to take the other side of that bet.
As per usual, Musk is trying to get attention through empty posturing. In a post earlier this year I reflected on the outlandish things Trump says and truth socials ending by saying “bait used to be believable.” The exact same dynamic is at play here too. Musk will never actually get anywhere near public office, he is just baiting for the attention. If by any chance it is not bait it is doomed to fail.
If you liked this post you can read a previous post about ads here or the rest of my writings here. I also have a section for longer reads I call essays here, I particularly recommend my essay on Silicon Valley and AI called 'No Acoustic Guitars in Silicon Valley'. It'd mean a lot to me if you recommended the blog to a friend or coworker. Come back next Monday for a new post!
I've always been interested in politics, economics, and the interplay between. The blog is a place for me to explore different ideas and concepts relating to economics or politics, be that national or international. The goal for the blog is to make you think; to provide new perspectives.
Written by Karl Johansson
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Cover photo by cottonbro studio from Pexels, edited by Karl Johansson