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With billionaires gaining more and more wealth and power, one person, one vote looks dead. Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX received nearly $7 billion in federal contracts this year, has committed roughly $366 million to affect who wins and loses on Nov. 3. That buys many thousands of votes.
Sen. Susan Collins, whose reelection campaign is the beneficiary of the second largest donation from Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, is also backed by a total of $126 million from a large network of Republican super PACs. Most of that funding can be traced to billionaires and donors who will never be named.
On Oct. 18, millions of people in all 50 states took part in over 3,000 No Kings rallies to get Americans to vote early ahead of the midterm elections. At the peak of activity, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta suspended the “No Kings” Instagram account. While Meta claimed it was an AI error due to high volume, Rep. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, asked how could they not have anticipated that spike given it was the fourth nationwide “day of action” in 20 months.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk used his undo influence on the Ukraine war by capping the speed of SpaceX’s military-grade Starlink that Ukraine uses to protect Kyiv from Russian drones and missiles. In essence, one billionaire joined Russia in their illicit war against Ukraine. Musk blames President Donald Trump for the action and Trump blames Musk as the line between corporate and state blurs.
Joe Blotnick
Bernard