Politics
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February 10, 2025
Elon Musk’s Power Grab is finally energizing resistance. But that is already undermined by the elite party’s dependence on Silicon Valley.
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Elon Musk’s ongoing coup took over the administrative state and managed to do what Democrats have struggled for months. It reminds me of why they hate Donald Trump so much, why he needs to actively resist. Trump’s first victory in 2020 produced a nationwide protest that unfolded over weeks with years of civil society upset. The gloomy sequel of 2024 produced no immediate wave of dissent. In contrast to what happened eight years ago, the anti-Trump coalition, which has not only resisted Trumpism for ten years, but is already tired of having to defend Joe Biden’s unfortunate president, is unclear. He lost morale and retreated. In contrast to the massive protest, there was a Wide departure from the newsan internal transition to private despair that is common to the onset of authoritarianism.
Musk’s Power Grab has changed everything. The sight of the world’s wealthiest man will review and perhaps use extraconstitutional power to remake the federal government’s internal computer network. It raises the specter of massive corruption and authoritarianism into an immediate threat. The move of the mask is not only anticipated court challenges (though it may slow Musk while being welcomed, but as my colleague Ellie Mster consciously observes, the possibility of stopping him is low). There is a substantial protest It started to break out again All over the United States: Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, California, Nevada, Washington, DC.
Resistance 2.0 is born right in front of our eyes. And there is a reason to hope that it will be freed from the evils of early resistance: uncertain nostalgia, slave loyalty to Democratic leadership, and Grifters and Crackpot Conspiracy Theorists.
Report on the protest in Washington NationChris Lehman observed that the rage of the activists gathered was directed not only by Musk and Trump, but also by weak opposition from Democratic leaders. According to Lehman, “the demanding actions of the tormented public and the prominent separation between the National Democrats operating in Autopilot were behind the Treasury protests.”
Democrat leaders, stabbed into their angry foundations, are beginning to become more vocal, but the contradictions of their own relationship with the Plutonium of Silicon Valley, to which Musk belongs, have stepped in themselves. I realize I am.
The clearest argument for Musk and Trump is simple class politics. This grab of power accesses and prepares potentially advantageous data that Superrich should control the Ministry of Public Treasury and should be done appropriately under the safety of government officials subject to Congressional oversight. Here’s how to do it. The basis for tax cuts to make already wealthy people even more wealthy. As the richest person in the world, Musk creates the perfect villain in this story.
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Senator Bernie Sanders, who himself is not a Democrat, but a key ally of the party, was the most outspoken thing on this line of attack. He has long been urged by Democrats to target not only Trump but broader Oliheads, with only partial success.
Saturday, Sanders Posted:
Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, is chasing USAID, who feeds the world’s poorest people. Next, he chases the programs that impact you: Medicaid, Medicare, Centers for Community Health, Pell Grants, Affordable Housing. We can stop him.
This is a message that Sanders has been repeating for a while and is finally beginning to take hold. It will appear in the podcast Weekly Show House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries sounded surprisingly the same on Friday. Note: “Republicans in the House, Senate and administration want to enact massive tax cuts for billionaires donors and wealthy businesses. Follow the money. This is the reality of what’s going on. And In the process, they want to paste working-class Americans into the bill.”
However, this resonant class war rhetoric ring, however, is Politics It has been reported That day, Jeffries said, “I met quietly with more than 150 Silicon Valley-based donors in California last week, an early stage in the Democratic effort to repair relations with the once deep blue constituency. “A singular focus was how Silicon Valley would ensure it remains a Democrat,” according to one participant.
It’s hard to harmonize Jeffries’ glove rings in front of Silicon Valley with his harsh words to “billionaire donors.” As Politics “The world of financial technology, where masks are called, is important for the Democratic fortunes in 2026.”
The central contradiction is that the best hope of the Democrats is economic populism, but the party’s central leadership ranks are obsessed with financial money. The only way out of this impasse is to adopt the Bernie Sanders model, which relies on small donors, but there is little evidence that the parties want to follow that model. I’m always happy to use a mailing list of politicians who know how to appeal to small donors (aside from Sanders, another major example is representative of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). But the main consequence is to clog these donors’ email inboxes and DMs, demanding more and more miserable and annoying money. Large parties are slave-dependent on larger donors.
As a leading expert in data Note:
The migration of the prominent wings of billionaires to the Republican Party has somewhat disrupted the balance, but Democrats have taken a long-term trajectory towards existence A wealthy party. Despite the help of the mask, Harris accepted Almost the same external money as Trump last year. and She actually had the best performance Among voters who make more than $100,000 a year.
As Silver points out, Democrats must choose between strategies to keep billionaires happy or embrace economic populism.
Democrats have long sought to resolve this contradiction by obfuscating the issue of class domination as a moral drama that distinguishes between “good” and “bad” billionaires. Ken Martin is partly grateful for the fact that he has been seen recently: Few examples for billionaires More than his main rival, Ben Winkler. However, during leadership, Martin I said it again“There are many good billionaires who were with Democrats who share our values. We take their money. But we do get money from those bad billionaires. I haven’t taken it.”
But this move from the economy to ethics is a false distraction. The question is not whether Musk is “bad” and George Soros is “good” (after all, this is a mirror image of their politics, as Republicans think the opposite). The question is, do Democrats reject a highly unequal society where billionaires are more immeasurably shaken towards politics than ordinary citizens? If so, they must push to restrain a very few “good” billionaires along with so many “bad” billionaires (wealthy and naturally attracted to the GOP). Not there.
Class politics is polarized by definition, and raises the core question: which side are you on? Are you with a billionaire or with people?
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Unless Democrats can articulate this class of politics, they will not have the advantage over Republicans on economic issues. This reduces politics into an endless farce of culture war attitudes. This is a theatre practice that Trump learned a long time ago.
As Silver says, “This situation is necessary. I’m explaining it as a salary increase or double strategy: Democrats need to oppose or against them with billionaires. A Martin-esque midfield, separating the world into a pranky, lovely billionaire, is perhaps the worst option. ”
You might add that Martin and Jeffries’ strategy of playing both sides of the street is also a good way to get everyone to make everyone hate you.
Musk is leading Republicans to catastrophe, but he may still be saved by the complete political incompetence of Democrats.
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