Comments on: If true, this is very good news about Elon Musk

By: neo

neo — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:06:53 +0000

HC68:

A viable third party wasn’t the issue. A spoiler third party was.

By: HC68

HC68 — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 16:42:52 +0000

I was never very worried about Musk creating a viable third party, because he can’t. The things Musk believes in are mostly a variety of libertarianism, and libertarianism is a hothouse flower that can’t handle real-world politics or human nature. He himself is not super-popular, either.

Somebody take Elon out in the back yard tonight, point up at Mars, and say “Dude – Focus!”

— BJ

Don’t mistake PR for reality. I doubt very seriously whether Musk really believes he can establish a viable colony on Mars in the foreseeable future. I’m pretty sure that’s a talking point to keep the Romantic space enthusiasts* energized while he works toward more practical goals.

(I don’t disdain Romantic space enthusiasts, I was one myself in my teens, and I’m still a non-Romantic space enthusiast. But Musk isn’t going to Mars or sending anyone to Mars anytime soon.)

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 02:34:52 +0000

@ BJ – we should all under-deliver so badly; we might also be billionaires.

IMO the third party “threat” was a gambit to see if anyone would bite, and perhaps who they might be.
Musk is another person who is often taken literally but not seriously, in Salena Zito’s trenchant observation about Trump.

By: BJ

BJ — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 22:17:29 +0000

Musk has a history of over promising and under delivering.

By: Ray Van Dune

Ray Van Dune — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 16:36:53 +0000

Somebody take Elon out in the back yard tonight, point up at Mars, and say “Dude – Focus!”

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 10:46:50 +0000

there are established and venerable third parties that endorse (or don’t) Republican or Democratic candidates
==
There’ve been a number in New York. You don’t wanna go there.

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 10:45:43 +0000

With four exceptions, 3d parties in the post-bellum era have tended to be evanescent, confined to a single state or locality, or a tiny organization of oddball hobbyists. The vast majority are category three, with some among them having been significant for a short period of years.
==
Qualified exceptions to this rule have been the Prohibition Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, and the Libertarian Party. The first was of some significance from 1892 to 1952, a hobby thereafter. The second was significant nationally from 1900 to 1948, significant in Wisconsin from 1948 to 1960, and a hobby from 1960 to 1971 (at which point it dissolved in three successor hobbies). The Communist Party was of significance from about 1928 to about 1952, not for their electoral performance but for their aptitude at infiltrating and exercising influence in organizations.
==
The vectors which influence people’s political sentiments are so well correlated in this country that you do not have a social or cultural basis for more than two political parties, or, more precisely, a multiplicity which can thrive in a first-past-the-post electoral system. If we had some other system (e.g. PR or ranked-choice voting), you might see small dissenter parties or regional parties here and there whose activities were not entirely futile.

By: Skip

Skip — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 08:27:16 +0000

Would work for me that outcome

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 02:29:32 +0000

I figured he would. Sometimes I figure correctly, sometimes not 🙂 In this case, I thought it likely that Musk didn’t have the time. Or the interest. But with Musk, never say never.

By: Niketas Choniates

Niketas Choniates — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 22:18:35 +0000

There's more than one way to skin a cat. A third party that actually runs its own candidates a la Ross Perot is what everyone thought Musk was planning to do, but there are established and venerable third parties that endorse (or don't) Republican or Democratic candidates and they can have a lot of positive influence on who the Republican or Democratic officeholders end up being. Unfortunately neo's link is to a third hand summary: Red State summarizing WSJ's reporting of what anonymous leakers say Musk is thinking. The WSJ doesn't think outside the Ross Perot box either, which is pretty deliberate considering that it's based in New York which has long had third parties involved in its elections that don't generally run their own candidates.