Well, the midterms are almost upon us. Our mail-in ballots were sent long ago. President Trump is scurrying about beating the tattered MAGA drum railing against the "hidden jihadists who would take away Christmas" and always, "the dumocrats," "Did you know there is a b in dumb? Most people don't." A now tired old saw that is raising the question on both sides of the aisle, "What will happen to MAGA when the Old Man shuffles of to Florida?" Is Vance up to it? Is there a less toxic option in the wings somewhere?
I think there is a more vital question to be asked. Regardless of the midterm outcomes, will Elon Musk increase his already massive influence over American policy? This South African - Canadian immigrant has already left an indelible footprint on American society as the former head of something called DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency - the short-lived and unlamented faux government agency made-up by President Trump in January of 2025 and closed in July of '26. As Head of this chimera Musk brought his spreadsheet mind into the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans by wiping out some 300,000 government jobs.
By "spreadsheet mind" I mean that it appears that Musk sees the world as a spreadsheet. Figures on a spreadsheet - unattached to the human beings represented by those numbers. He certainly saw DOGE that way. "Oh my! Look how big the numbers are in this cell of the 'US Government Spreadsheet' Let's remove half of those numbers. There! See how much smaller the total for that column is! Much more efficient!"
Let's just think a bit about the impact reducing those spreadsheet numbers had on the people those numbers represented. Let's say half of those jobs were held by the "heads of households." 150K. Let's say that those were traditional families, a couple of parents and a couple of kids. So 150,000 x 4 =600,000 people + the 150,000 single folks. So Elon single-handedly disrupted the lives of 750,000 Americans by removing 300,000 digits from that spreadsheet cell. Not a bad year's work for a naturalized immigrant, who - seemingly - has never been visited by ICE.
So how did this South African come to wield such influence here in America? He bought it. He "earned" it by becoming the richest man in the world, and using that wealth to purchase unparalleled influence among the MAGAites.
But that's not the end of this sad tale. Let's talk about the Ukraine for a moment. I remember driving by a large truck rental firm up here a couple of years ago. The establishment has "international" as part of its name and has six or seven tall flagpoles running along it's highway frontage. And those flagpoles were all flying the Ukrainian flag as a symbol of support for America's support of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
Well, things have changed. The flags have returned to a mixed bag of international entities with the Ukraine occasionally making an appearance. A uniquely accurate reflection of the waffling in American foreign policy. President Trump seems to have, rather suddenly, become good friends with Vladimir Putin, the former KGB agent who is currently the President of Russia. We have come to expect strange things from the Trump policy merry-go-round, but I sure didn't see that coming. Then again, I'm not a long-haul trucker or a farmer who has to feed multiple diesel engines. I don't mean to imply that Musk had anything to do with Trump's bromance with Putin. Those things are way above my pay grade. And Musk's influence becomes more apparent in a different area.
And it isn't merely policy influence - it is part of active American decision-making in the Ukraine. I thought Starlink was just another Musk business cashing in on our demand for better, faster Internet service. It appears I was wrong - very wrong. Musk has this other company called Starshield which is designed for high level military use. One of those uses allows Ukrainian forces to track incoming Russian missiles and drones soon enough to launch interceptors that will destroy those attacking entities before they reach their occasionally civilian targets.
Apparently sometime early this month the speed of the Starshield was greatly reduced leaving Ukrainian forces unable to block Russian attacks. Some reports implied that the White House requested that Musk return the system to speed. Again, reports vary as to how quickly Musk acquiesced to those requests, ranging from not at all, to grudging acquiescence.
That is not the issue. The issue is that the requests had to be made at all. That the US had to "ask" a private individual - one of whose three citizenships is US - to "please" adjust your technology to bring it in line with American governmental/military policy.
Does it matter that the "private individual" was the richest man in the world who openly uses his wealth to advance preferential US policies and particular candidates of a particular political party? Well, obviously it does. Should it matter? It should be equally obvious that it should not.
When the ultra-rich can so blatantly control American activities in the world, something has gone terribly wrong. But perhaps, as the bard put it, "the fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." Underlings that we have, as a culture, come to worship wealth, and those who possess it.
Musk did not steal the power he abuses. As I said earlier, he bought it. And he will continue to buy it, as he buys our elections, and puts in power those who bow before his wealth and so become mouthpieces for the MAGA movement he influences from the not-so-hidden shadows.
We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation. Perhaps we should remember why we shed so much blood and treasure to become this uniquely blessed place. Our ancestors were fleeing an aristocracy where the important decisions and freedoms were controlled by a tiny percentage of the population defined by financial power, social privilege and aristocratic heritage. We fought a revolution to be free from those abuses. We should vote to reaffirm those hard won freedoms.
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