I have a confession to make. I’m mildly obsessed with Elon Musk. I can’t think of another human on Earth who has done as many bold and interesting things as this one slightly awkward immigrant from South Africa.
In California, he’s been on our radar for a fair bit longer than the rest of the country. This is where he made his initial fortune with PayPal. That seemingly small innovation that helped change the world by normalizing online commerce.
This is where he not only established an independent automotive brand, but made EVs cool in the process. This he augmented by a full-on solar-panel/battery installation company.
And if building a successful car company wasn’t enough, this is where he did what every American thought impossible. He built a private-sector space program. Right here in California. (while also quietly tunneling under an unsuspecting Los Angeles, in pursuit of more efficient subways)
But Elon Musk going to war with California during the pandemic and turning sharply rightward politically, has made this state deeply conflicted about the man.
I live in Altadena. Home of Jet Propulsion Laboratories. About once a week, I hike the trail that runs up behind this sprawling brain-farm.
I’ve known and worked for several highly placed JPL scientists over the years, including Jim Dunne, the chief scientist of the Mariner 10 program. JPL was midwifed by Caltech down the hill in Pasadena, and has always been NASA’s idea-mill. This is where Carl Sagan founded his Planetary Society. Around here we’re proud of our space connection.
But it never occurred to us that something like SpaceX was even possible, let alone likely. Think what you will about Elon. He’s never met a paradigm he couldn’t shift.
My next-door neighbor is on the JPL team that just sent Europa Clipper off toward Jupiter’s icy moon. She flew to Florida for the launch. Very spectacular. Their payload rode on the back of a SpaceX rocket. I’m sure that this good liberal woman is as frustrated with Elon Musk as almost every Tesla driver. She’s told me as much.
But there’s no denying how good SpaceX is at what they do.
Per capita, I’m fairly sure that SoCal is the world capital of Teslas. Not long ago, as I drove from home to the trail-head across from JPL, I spotted NINE of them. And that’s only a three mile drive. They’re even more numerous out on the West Side.
Californians are equal parts in awe of, and confounded by Elon Musk. I posted this video in May of 2022 as Musk was taking control of Twitter.
My thesis was that Musk was making a serious mistake by forsaking his natural constituency to chase after conservatives who were unlikely to buy his products. In it I said this among other things: “Is there anybody who is more deeply invested in green energy? In the global information economy? In futuristic visions of urban life?
“Remember, most of his big accomplishments have been backed by huge government investments and tax incentives.
“Does this sound to you like a guy who'd be wise to trade his progressive fan base for an army of MAGA Bros? But this is what he's doing, isn't it?”
At the close of that video I said this: “I don't see a scenario in which Elon Musk doesn't lose. I hate to see it. Musk is a once in ten life-times black swan. The world needs his creativity, his drive, and frankly, his balls.
“Let's hope that whatever happens in the next few months will be sorted out quickly. That Musk will take the life-lesson to heart, and get back to doing what he does best. Amazing and delighting us by doing impossible things, while staying the hell OUT of political shit-fights.”
I stand by a lot of what I said in that video. But maybe I missed something more important long-term. Musk had single-handedly vaporized the right-wing aversion to electric vehicles. And apparently lived to tell the tale.
In 2023, one out of every eight cars bought in California was a Tesla. Musk’s Twitter adventures had apparently not caused his EV brand to tank as bad as I’d thought it would. Sales in the first two quarters of 2024 were down significantly but not drastically.
Teslas have not disappeared from our roads. I don’t see any that look like they’ve been vandalized. Maybe that means that many EV drivers don’t care all that much about Elon’s politics? Maybe that means that Musk has formed some sort of tentative bridge between left and right?
Maybe … But if so, he now seems determined to burn it.
When the Republican Primaries were launching, Musk supported Ron DeSantis. You recall that glitch ridden announcement interview on Twitter Spaces?
Musk had previously tweeted: “"I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset." That seemed to be a prudent stance.
I wasn’t tracking Musk much after that … in spite of my mild obsession. But as Twitter/X continued to struggle, this little interchange caught my attention. Elon Musk telling Disney and other advertisers to go f*ck themselves. (watch for just a minute)
Note the hand gestures he uses. Donald Trump’s patented OK sign. His proprietary movement of the arms and hands as if playing an invisible accordion. I mean, Elon Musk was outright imitating Trump at this point. Signaling solidarity with Trump’s MAGA minions.
When a bullet grazed the former president in July, Elon pledged his support right away. Donating $45 million through his newly created America PAC.
Trump hadn’t hung up his hat. So Musk threw his own into the ring, even putting his peculiar stamp on the MAGA chapeau. First the black ‘Dark MAGA’ version that he wore in Butler PA when appearing with Trump two weeks ago.
And now the gold-on-gold version he’s wearing to promote his whack-sounding gambit to finally put Trump over the top in battleground states.
One Million Dollars A Day! This will go to a lucky swing-state voter who’s entered the contest by joining Elon’s PAC in the guise of signing a pro-1st and 2nd amendment petition. Is this even legal? Maybe. The jury’s still out on that. But sheesh … when this guy commits to something he doesn’t mess around.
Of course Musk is always working on multiple channels at once. In exchange for his money and full-throated support, Trump has said that he’ll allow Elon to form and oversee some sort of government efficiency department.
When looking into how deeply entwined Musk’s companies are with our federal government, one can’t help wondering if Elon is now just using Trump, in order to grease the DC skids for his own future multi-billion-dollar deals.
I’m fascinated by this guy. And he scares me half to death.
Last month, when Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, I looked up her reach on Instagram. 283 million followers. Almost twice the total number of Americans who voted in 2020.
I joked to a friend that Taylor Swift was now a human Swing State.
Of course, her fans are all over the world, and mostly teenage girls. I can’t imagine that Tay-Tay will have much of an effect on the coming election.
But seeing her in those terms got me to thinking about how many votes Elon might move. Certainly his admirers are more politically engaged and old enough to vote.
Just as Swift’s voting-age fans were probably already liberals, I figured that Musk’s fans - 201,500,000 of them on Twitter/X alone - were mostly conservatives.
Those who have fled his side were always going to vote against Trump. And those who now adore him for his rightward drift? They were Trumpers all along.
So is it all a wash? Maybe.
But … Musk is no damn pop singer. He is a real-deal major player in several industries. For Christ’s sake, SpaceX is bringing rockets the size of a 20-story building back from the edge of space to be caught standing up by an enormous steel-girder hand … as easy as you or I would hang a mop in the broom closet.
And the number of communications satellites he controls boggles the mind. 7,000 at last count. A full third of the total.
Oh yeah … and he’s also the richest man on Planet Earth. And a household name to boot.
I’ve always said that Trump’s fame was the actual deciding factor in his ascent to power. Americans are celebrity crazed to an embarrassing degree. And also prone to brown-nosing the very rich.
Donald Trump was namechecked in about 300 rap songs. He was an icon of monetary success, and the shallow waters of pop culture care about nothing as much as money.
But who’s the Money King now? Who’s throwing stacks of Benjamins around and telling ‘the man’ to go f*ck himself? Who is seen as a guy who’s picked a winner every time he’s ponied up his own cash? Elon Musk is that guy now.
And now Elon says “Vote For Trump”. Lots of people will hear about this and talk about it, and wonder if Musk is once again betting on a winner.
All of this at a time when left-leaning media are scratching their heads about young Black and Hispanic males migrating to the right.
Swing states are called that because the margins between red and blue are so narrow that a race can swing one way or the other. In 2020, seven states were won by less than 3%. When Trump telephoned Georgia’s Secretary of State, how many votes was Trump asking asking him to ‘find’?
ELEVEN THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY.
That’s nothing. That’s the margin of error of a margin of error. And this race is a dead heat as of Tuesday morning October 22, 2024 when I was writing this sentence.
We also have to acknowledge that people don’t really know Kamala Harris. And many people are at least somewhat reticent about setting up an untested female as the de facto leader of the free-world. At a time in history when alpha-dog authoritarians are on the rise.
We’ve heard a lot about people who like what Harris says, but just feel like their lives were easier during Trump’s term. The kitchen-table issues that Kamala and Tim keep reminding them of? That discussion only makes some voters nostalgic for a pre-Biden presidency.
A lot of folks will enter the polling place still flipping an imaginary coin.
How many people who don’t much like Donald Trump will be moved to give him another chance, assuming that a world-beater like Elon Musk, must know something that we don’t? It’s impossible to guess.
But it is conceivable that if Musk keeps his pedal to the metal this week and next, he might just tip the scales.
And then we’ll have to consider that we’re seeing another new paradigm shift.
The one-man swing state.
Thanks for reading. I’ve got a number of pieces that I’ve been working on. But like most of you probably, I’ve got a serious case of election burn-out. And there is major chain-saw work going on just outside my windows, accompanied by much shouting in Spanish. What are ya gonna do?
Be well, and feel free to leave a comment. -Dave
You pretty much have voiced my thoughts and fears that i have been grappling with ever since Musk went MAGA. I too have had a deep admiration for the man for many years and have always said that what this country needed was 10 more Elon Musks.
My progressive friends have angrily dismissed this as naive idol worship, insisting that Musk never actually invented anything, but stole all of his ideas from others. Well even if there is some truth to that, he has, as you so skillfully point out, created two thriving industries that frankly did not look like they would emerge for another couple decades.
But, now I can barely look at him. For a mind like that to join this cult is so disheartening that I have to turn my attention elsewhere.
I think Kamala is going to win this election. That makes me not only worry how DT and the maga world will react, but how EM will.
It won’t be boring
And let's not forget that Biden (and with guilt by association Harris) snubbed Musk for the big USA Automakers pow-wow about a year(?) ago.