The Window For Democrats To Fight Keeps Closing
And the missed opportunities of the past loom large.
On Friday, Elon Musk announced a weekend event in Wisconsin, ahead of the state’s Tuesday Supreme Court election. As in the 2024 presidential election, when Musk violated federal law, the purpose of the event was to increase low-propensity turnout by offering bribes.
“Entrance is limited to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election,” Musk posted, “I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.”
This time around there are no federal candidates on the ballot. But his scheme was still flatly illegal. Under Wisconsin law, it is a felony to offer, give, or promise to give anything of value to anyone for the purpose of inducing them to vote or refrain from voting. It was so illegal that he deleted his own tweet, and published a new one: “To clarify a previous post, entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges,” Musk wrote. “I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition.”
The only thing missing was a 😉.
But even if Musk really did regret the initial post, the crime had already been committed, and the damage to the integrity of the election had already been done. His only lawful recourse at that point would have been to apologize for the misunderstanding and cancel the event altogether. But, of course, that’s not what he did.
Moreover, Musk’s illegal intervention might prove to be the decisive factor in a critical bellwether. The Wisconsin Supreme Court race is a test of whether Musk can reliably buy any closely contested office he wants, as he bought the presidency. It’s also a referendum on whether Wisconsin will slip back into state-level Republican autocracy, or continue its march back toward a free and republican form of government. If the Musk-backed candidate wins, he will likely vanquish abortion rights, and Wisconsin’s partisan gerrymanders, which gave Republicans supermajorities in the legislature of a 50-50 state, will return. Oh, and of course, Musk has a pecuniary interest in the outcome: His car company, Tesla, has sued Wisconsin over a law that prohibits him from selling cars directly to consumers at Tesla-owned dealerships1.
And so the question—should Musk be allowed to commit a felony in plain view, without any interference from state law-enforcement officials, because he happens to be incredibly rich and powerful?—loomed large.
, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party noted that any mere mortal attempting to buy an election in this manner would be arrested, and called on state authorities to step in. “Law enforcement must act now before this goes any further. Musk’s crime to assist Brad Schimel has already been committed, and if Elon Musk sets foot in Wisconsin, he should be placed in handcuffs and held accountable—just like any other criminal.”State law-enforcement officials didn’t see it that way, or maybe they were just intimidated. The state’s attorney general, Josh Kaul, instead took the unusual step of asking the courts to order Musk to stop committing crime, which is not the courts’ job, and which they declined to do.
So Musk came to Wisconsin and rubbed Democratic faces in his impunity. His event went off without a hitch, and now we await tonight’s returns to find out whether it paid off.
I obviously hope it does not pay off. Indeed, I hope it backfires. Musk and America deserve nothing more than to see his efforts to buy politicians fail spectacularly. He should lose this election, then his government “job,” then Tesla, and eventually all his government contracts and control over critical infrastructure.
But we can’t count on things playing out that way—either in Musk’s life or in this election. Statewide races in Wisconsin tend to be close; we can’t measure the turnout effect of a million-dollar bribe. Wikler’s instincts here were completely correct, even if elected officials above him don’t realize it yet. And this underlines my big fear in the midst of this authoritarian seizure of power. I’m heartened by the rising of the Democratic base, and by the membership’s recognition that it’s been supine in the face of GOP lawlessness for too long. May it utterly and enduringly transform the party. But there is quite clearly a lag effect. And so an important, unanswered question is, what will the country look like by the time the transformation is complete?
SEVEN YEAR GLITCH
I’ve been concerned about this for almost seven years. I can actually remember the day it dawned on me that we had a problem.