How you know they're on the same side in one picture:
this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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politics
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Boggles the mind that people still call this a democracy.
Imagine a world where "money = speech" reconciled with the notion that when it comes to elections, everyone should have an equal voice, and the result is that a fixed amount of money was made available to candidates, split evenly among every citizen, and we were able to choose who our portion went to. No outside funding period.
Apparently Brazil passed such legislation. They have a national electoral fund that they use to fund electoral campaigns. Individual citizens can donate up to 10% of their income to the fund per year.
Funny enough some states in the US also had such laws but they were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Are you saying they progressively cap what you can donate, based on the donators income? That sounds like it blatantly disenfranchises poor voters, but maybe I’m misunderstanding. I would think, there should be a hard cap on the amount you can donate. If anything would be progressive, I’d think the government should match your donation (not to exceed the cap) for poorer voters. Like, if you’re on food stamps, you basically only have to pay with half as much as everyone else (or something).
Representative government who only represents the donors and not the constituents, especially after an election, is definitely why we can't have nice things.
I'm kinda surprised no one has come in with the "It isn't a democracy, it's a Democratic Republic!"
Fuck, keep forgetting I'm not on reddit.
Cause the issue isn't how people are represented, but that money means more representation. Doesn't matter if it was straight democracy or democratic republic, it ain't really either if people with money get more representation.
Shocked, yes shocked I am that such a bold, genius person is crawling back to the trough instead of following through on fucking anything.
Following through on what? Musk is behaving exactly as he always has, and that’s in support of anything and everything to keep himself wealthy and profiting.
This isn’t a Trump issue, don’t be mistaken. The billionaire class will invest in any and all levers of power that continue their way of life, especially those that continue to insulate them from any accountability. The Republican Party as well as any others that further consolidate money and power for the wealthy while making life harder and more desperate for the rest of us will always have an infinite supply of funding and support from the billionaires. Trust me, now and even more so in the future, this is the shape of politics and the true ‘us vs them’ that those in power are trying less and less to distract us from.
Following through on what?
Anything. In this particular example his never-really-existed “America party”.
The billionaire class will invest in any and all levers of power that continue their way of life, especially those that continue to insulate them from any accountability.
Obvs. Agreed.
I would not be surprised to see someone trying to fund something like the teabagger movement after Taco's exit. If they call it the "America party", I would not be surprised. Whole lot of people will be too young to know or have strategic forgettery about the first teabagger movement. And the "mainstream media" is not likely to do a good job telling them, either, if they bothered to watch it. Certainly, their information bubbles will not.
If fElon plays the role of financing and astroturfing that, I would not be surprised, either. He needs some way to disrupt anything that might end the corporate welfare pipeline or start up any inconvenient regulation of his companies....getting morons to vote for Republicans under the guise of a "new party" (teabagger/"Tea Party" 2.0) is a great way to do that.
3 months ago he was saying he was gonna start his own party.
fElon says a lot of things.
It was always political theater
So he's going to help the party that supports a pedo?
Birds of a feather, and all that
They hate transpeople, and that's enough for him.
Money only matters when the only two options play that game...
Musk could give Republicans a trillion dollars, it won't stop an authentic progressive with charisma like Mamdani.
No amount of money can translate to votes like that.
Progressives lost to AIPAC funded candidates.
New York doesn’t mirror the voting of the rest of the country.
Money still wins elections. Don’t be complacent.
It doesn't have to be that way. On the west coast the Seattle mayor election went to Katie Wilson, a staunch progressive.
I didn’t say it “has to be that way”.
Seattle is in a blue state. Like New York, it doesn’t mirror the voting of the rest of the country.
We need to win in purple/red states to change our trajectory.
I'm noy saying money doesn't matter, but Kamala Harris outspent Trump by, like, 2:1 iirc in 2024 and still lost. Clearly money is not the only factor.
I agree it isn’t the only factor but it is a big one. Also, Trump had billionaires doing things off the books like Elon paying people to vote.
The money is to alter the results; not change perceptions before voting.
Money is used to change perceptions before the election. That is why so much is spent on campaigns. It is also used for bribery. Elon will use his money in any way possible to get what he wants.
That doesn't make any sense.
Because if they were doing that, they'd have people who wanted to do it and wouldn't require a bribe.
If they were bribing people, they'd demand payment be made after, and then just not pay them
Under no circumstance would they pay first and hope to not get ratfucked, because they fuck over everyone else at the drop of a hat.
Sounds like you’re claiming politicians dont accept bribes. Which is verifiably false.
They can pay before or after, if the politician doesn’t follow through on their end wealthy people have other ways to make them pay.
Or maybe the word gets out that a particular politician isn’t delivering. With the resources that the wealthy have they can run a smear campaign and ruin that politicians career.
Not to mention Clarence Thomas was bribed by letting him use a super yacht. If he didn’t follow through on his end the owner could just not let him use the yacht anymore.
There are many ways to skin this cat.
PEDOnald wants muskrat to help him cheat and hide and lie...
Worled once,.likely work again.
Could it be that Musk figured with the Epstein stuff and how he's tied to it, he probably just shrugged and was like "oh yeah I am part of that shitty crowd"? The bed was too comfy and warm for him to leave it.
Wake me up when the guillotines come out
Trump: If you cheat for me, I MAY forgive you...
Musk: Thank you daddy. 😘
Well, they need him to rig the midterms
Nazi money won't save them
Gotta check if I'm still allowed to vote and if I'm still a citizen! How wonderful! What a great time to be alive!