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Elon Musk Is a Better Patriot Than 99% of Dems, But He's Still Dead Wrong About One Key Issue

Well, thanks to the “Big Beautiful Bill,” it seems that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are at it, again.

Both men, it’s worth noting, have points. Yes, as Musk noted in multiple social media posts, the government spends too much money and needs to reign in its profligate habits. Yes, as President Trump noted, the budget reconciliation process is not the place to do this.

That’s not how Musk sees it, and it’s a hill he’s willing to die upon: “It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country — the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” he wrote on X.

But the problematic addendum was this: “Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people.”

Nor was this the only post of its type that came from Elon during the so-called “vote-a-rama” on amendments to the reconciliation bill:

One feels for Musk, who is a great patriot in the country he’s adopted. That being said, he’s still dead wrong on a few issues — the biggest being the idea that a third party is going to help anything, especially if it takes votes away from a Republican candidate.

Scott Presler, who helped turn Pennsylvania for Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle, noted that he supported Musk and his contributions, but “I also believe that creating a third party would ultimately lead to a democrat supermajority in Congress.

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“This result — I would argue — would be completely counterproductive to the desire for a balanced budget,” Presler noted.

“With a narrow majority in the House & 53 seats in the Senate, we are limited to what kind of Big Beautiful Bill we can pass.”

Independent journalist Breanna Morello also noted that she agreed with Musk on spending issues, but she doesn’t believe “you burn down the country because you didn’t get your way.”

“Creating another party and splitting the Republican vote will do just that,” she said. “There’s other ways to fix these issues.”

For the left, third-party votes — almost always cast for president — fall under the aegis of luxury beliefs. Only twice has a candidate who wanted to spend more than the Democrats did actually potentially affect the outcome of the election, and in both cases — 2000 and 2016 — it was widely assumed that the Democratic candidate had it in the bag. In the years to come, anyone who bragged about their votes for Ralph Nader or Jill Stein was roundly criticized for “giving us” George W. Bush or Donald Trump, even if it didn’t necessarily work out that way statistically.

On the other hand, conservatives have too frequently dreamed of a third party that will come and rescue us from Beltway swamp-creatures. Ross Perot’s Reform Party is patient zero for what happens with these sorts of aspirations. His 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns hobbled the Republican challenger both times — arguably delivering a fatal blow to George H.W. Bush’s chance in 1992 — and the party itself had little sustained success outside of securing one term in the governor’s mansion for Jesse “The Body/The Brain/The Whack-Job Tinfoil-Hat Nutter” Ventura in Minnesota.

Is that what’s going to solve this problem? Let’s assume for a second that a third-party founded by Musk is able to get ballot access in every state and takes, oh, 10 percent of the vote in each election, for the sake of making things round.

Would it be a mistake for Musk to launch a third party?

That’s a relatively small amount for what would doubtlessly be a more ambitious effort than Perot’s Reform Party, while still not winning any seats. It would, however, hand up to seven Senate seats — Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas — to the Democrats if all went the same way it did in 2020. The other party would also be within striking distance in Alaska and Kansas, and arguably close in Kentucky, where longtime Sen. Mitch McConnell is retiring.

This is because all of the votes it would take away — literally almost every last one — would come from Republicans. It would turn a 53-47 advantage for the Republicans to a 54-46 advantage for the Democrats. The House would look even worse.

Boy, Elon sure showed them.

This isn’t to question Musk’s patriotism or the legitimacy of his concern. Government bloat bites. So does the reconciliation process. However, neither of these things will be changed by threats of a third party or doom-posting about the debt. The GOP should absolutely be held to account by conservatives — but hobbling the GOP will not, in any way, make government one dollar smaller or one mote less powerful.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).

Birthplace

Morristown, New Jersey

Education

Catholic University of America

Languages Spoken

English, Spanish

Topics of Expertise

American Politics, World Politics, Culture

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