Elon Musk said he is starting a new political party, which he dubbed the ‘America Party’ in a post on X Saturday.

Musk was born in South Africa but obtained his citizenship in 2002. He took an increasingly prominent role in politics through his partnership with Donald Trump during the 2024 U.S. presidential cycle, pumping money into the Republican’s campaign and utilizing his social media platform, X, to promote him.

However, Musk and Trump had a very public fall out after the tech mogul departed the federal government. While Musk has walked back some of his more outrageous allegations and attacks, he has persisted with the idea that the U.S. needs a new political party.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    3 days ago

    If you can’t build a sufficiently-large coalition of voters internal to one of the Big Two parties, how is starting from scratch rather than doing internal realignments going to be any easier?

    The US electoral system will stabilize around two large, big-tent parties. If you start a new party, then you will need to convince enough people to join that party, which will kill off at least one existing Big Two party. The requirement to build the coalition of voters doesn’t go away. It’s just that now you’ve got extra tasks to deal with.

    Trump didn’t get his position by cleverly manipulating internal party mechanisms in the GOP. He got it by going out and selling voters on Trump. Someone else can do that too.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It has been estimated that there was a total of 5.5 Billion dollars spent in the last Presidential Election. Elon Musk is estimated to be worth over $400 billion. He can literally buy Congress.

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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      3 days ago
      1. Publicly funded elections
      2. End FPTP and enact a parliamentary system
      3. Better media that lets everyone know what’s going on

      Lots of luck with any one of them, but that’s the answer

        • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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          3 days ago

          The problem is that with any type of FPTP system, any compelling leader outside the existing power structure will produce the opposite effect as their stated policies are.

          Something like Bernie Sanders trying to drag the Democrats over to some kind of human policy matrix is actually a realistic possibility, but it’s definitely an uphill battle… but there is plenty of precedent on the right for a successful leader just hijacking and overriding the existing power structure and taking it in his own direction, it’s definitely possible.

        • madlian@lemmy.cafeBanned from community
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          3 days ago

          Leader is subjective. Trump is a “leader.”

          We do not need another Trump.