Musk or no Musk, voters crave new and better choices
Billionaire Elon Musk has never been seen as a messenger for social or political change. Credit: AP
The message from the people has been clear for some time. Most adults in the U.S. think a third major party is needed. According to a Gallup organization survey last October, that 58% majority includes 69% of political independents, 53% of Democrats and 48% of Republicans.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is split from former best-friend-forever Donald Trump. Musk now seems to see a marketing opportunity for an alternative party. He calls it the "America Party" as an answer to the alleged "uniparty" of Republicans and Democrats.
Trump’s reply is self-serving. "I think it's ridiculous to start a third party," Trump said Sunday before boarding Air Force One. "It's always been a two-party system and I think starting a third party just adds to the confusion."
The president knows that system personally serves him well. He dictates to an empowered GOP and asserts broad powers and privileges.
By rolling out his "America Party" notion, Musk reveals little sense of a democratic republic. When he slashed federal agencies in Trump’s "efficiency" effort, his team didn’t seem to know or care what might be lost or why. Real political movements take a more intelligent assessment of such things. Musk has never been seen as a messenger for social or political change, only technological advancement and sales.
One basic fact: Parties are mentioned nowhere in the Constitution. Their very existence drew revulsion from such founders as Alexander Hamilton, who called them "a most fatal disease" of popular governments. Still, as the nation evolved, we most often ended up choosing either A or B at election time.
Third parties do play a role in splintering the major parties. President Theodore Roosevelt first served as a Republican, but when he sought a comeback in 1912, he carried the banner of the Progressive Party, a GOP spinoff. This curveball helped elect Democrat Woodrow Wilson. George Wallace’s independent candidacy helped Richard Nixon’s win in 1968 and Ross Perot’s strong third-party showing played into Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory.
Trump’s operatives know about this and denounce Musk’s announcement as just a spiteful way to draw votes from MAGA Republicans, helping Democrats.
New York’s home-grown minor parties have different roles. They help steer the major state parties from within. Democratic leaders live in fear of socialist Working Families Party candidates. But the Conservative Party, which was once a GOP spinoff, is an accepted ally of New York Republicans, whose numbers and clout have dwindled.
The two-party idea is marbled into government from state to state. Boards of election are equally divided in representation between Republicans and Democrats, even if the enrollment numbers are now lopsided. Congressional proceedings and committees are organized around which single party is in the majority, and which is in the minority.
That’s how it’s designed to work. But partisanship has hardened. The partnership may be at a breaking point.
Republicans and Democrats are so divided into hostile camps that any organized group trying to bridge the gap risks denunciation and distrust from either side. Feelings run hot among rank-and-file voters. Musk’s claim that our opposing factions form a "uniparty" might be outdated if all ability to compromise is gone.
There seems to be no effort to reach basic understandings between the major parties. Trump threatens to stage a federal takeover of New York City if socialist Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is elected. The threat might be idle self-stimulation. Yet it could also end up uniting Democratic factions against a common self-declared enemy.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
