According to a New York Times analysis , Musk went from supporting Democrats to Republicans because he was “[ a ] ngry at liberals over immigration , transgender rights , and the Biden administration ’ s perceived treatment of Tesla .” At a meeting earlier this year that embodied the specter of a secret cabal of billionaires seeking to buy an election , Musk reportedly conversed with his fellow wealthy elites about Republican control of the U . S . Senate . At that meeting , he reportedly worried that “ if President Biden won ,
“ The Republican Party as a whole has decided that undocumented people voting in U . S . elections is the single biggest threat facing the country — not billionaires like Musk raining down dollars to drown our democracy .”
millions of undocumented immigrants would be legalized and democracy would be finished ,” as per the Times .
He ’ s not the only one . The Republican Party as a whole has decided that undocumented people voting in U . S . elections is the single biggest threat facing the country — not billionaires like Musk raining down dollars to drown our democracy .
Undocumented immigrants are human beings , not dollar bills . And yet they hold far less sway over elections than Musk ’ s money . There is no mass amnesty for undocumented people in the U . S . currently — this isn ’ t Ronald Reagan ’ s America after all . And even if there was , there is a long , complicated path from legal status to the voting status that citizenship allows .
I should know , I ’ ve been there personally , having entered the U . S . as an immigrant on a student visa before obtaining legal residency and then citizenship . My journey was far more straightforward than that of Melania Trump and still , it was 18 years before I could legally vote after first stepping on American soil .
And yet every four years , immigrants become political footballs , flayed at the proverbial whipping posts of democracy for merely existing — usually by both political parties . Rightwing voters waved signs saying “ Mass Deportations Now ” at the Republican National Convention , while Democrats took a less vulgar approach by appeasing anti-immigrant forces with asylum restrictions , hoping it would garner voter support .
Sean Morales-Doyle , writing for the Brennan Center for Justice , asks us to imagine being an undocumented immigrant in the U . S .: “ Would you risk everything — your freedom , your life in the United States , your ability to be near your family — just to cast a single ballot ?” Not only are there harsh penalties , including prison time , for illegally casting ballots , but even the rabidly far-right Heritage Foundation has found only 85 cases of supposed undocumented voters out of 2 billion votes cast from 2002 to 2023 . That works out to a 0.00000425 percent of the vote .
Let ’ s compare this to the influence of money on elections . The nonpartisan group Open Secrets , which tracks money in politics , finds that “ the candidate who spends the most usually wins .” In 2022 , about 94 percent of the candidates for the House of Representatives who spent the most money won their race , while 82 percent of those running for the Senate who spent the most money won their seats . Much of their donations come from Super PACs , which bundle high-dollar amounts from wealthy Americans . While billionaires such as Bloomberg have had trouble getting themselves elected , they have had little trouble getting others elected — or unelected as the case may be . Already this year , moneyed interests in the form of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC , defeated progressive congressional representative Jamaal Bowman of New York in his primary election , and have their sights set on representative Cori Bush of Missouri next .
Should we be concerned about the imagined influence of undocumented immigrants or the actual influence of billionaire dollars on our elections ? In a 2020 poll , Pew Research found that most Americans felt billionaires were neither good nor bad for the nation . Only about a third felt they were bad for the nation — roughly the same percentage that fears there is an effort to replace U . S . voters with immigrants for the purposes of electoral power .
USA Today writer Marla Bautista captured Musk ’ s role succinctly in asking , “ Can Elon Musk buy Trump the White House ?” It ’ s a valid question , one that we should be centering as election season heats up .
Think of the U . S . democracy as an old , large , sailing ship attempting to cross a vast ocean with all voters on board working to steer it across to shore . Every hole in its sail , every shark circling it , impacts its ability to succeed . In such a scenario , an undocumented person attempting to vote is akin to a speck of dust on the hull . Every million-dollar donation is a wave buffeting the ship . Enter men like Musk , whose money becomes a veritable tsunami aimed directly at democracy to overwhelm and topple it , destroying everything and everyone on board .
Sure , we may have sailed successful voyages most of the time ( with the years 2000 and 2016 being among the worst exceptions ). But with billionaire influence becoming larger every election , there ’ s an ever-increasing chance that democracy may not reach the shore . Will we be distracted by the dust on our hull or the massive wave rising before us ?
90 x The Trial Lawyer