‘Are We Really Living in a Democracy?’ Asks Sanders After Musk Drops $10 Million on US Senate Race: “Billionaires can’t be allowed to buy elections.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-musk-donation

25 Comments

  1. Silent-Resort-3076 on

    Snippet:

    * After flirting last year with forming his own political party, far-right billionaire Elon Musk is funding Republican political candidates once again.

    ​

    Axios reported on Monday that Musk recently made a massive
    $10 million donation to bolster Nate Morris, a MAGA candidate
    who is vying to replace retiring US Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

    * Axios described the massive donation, the largest Musk has ever given to a Senate candidate, as “the biggest sign yet that Musk plans to spend big in the 2026 midterms, giving Republicans a formidable weapon in the expensive battle to keep their congressional majorities.”
    * Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reacted with disgust to the news, and said that Musk’s enormous donation was indicative of a broken campaign finance system.
    * “Are we really living in a democracy when the richest man on earth can spend as much as he wants to elect his candidates?” Sanders asked in a social media post.

    ​

    “The most important thing our nation can do is end Citizens United
    and move to public funding of elections,” he added, referring to
    the 2010 Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for unlimited
    spending on elections by corporations. “Billionaires can’t be
    allowed to buy elections.”

    * Democratic Maine State Auditor Matt Dunlap, currently running to represent Maine’s second congressional district, also denounced Musk for throwing his weight around to buy politicians.
    * “Billionaires buy our elections, rig the tax code, and undermine our democracy,” wrote Dunlap. “Working people deserve a government that works for them—not for billionaires like Elon Musk.”
    * Musk is no stranger to spending big to help elect Republicans, having spent more than $250 million in 2024 to help secure President Donald Trump’s victory.

  2. In case anyone was wondering, $10 million to Elon Musk is the equivalent of someone who has $100,000 donating $1.67 to a political campaign.

    Elon Musk is literally buying election influence with his pocket change

  3. ImLikeReallySmart on

    So you mean Musk was full of shit when he said he was backing congressional Republicans in 2022 simply because balancing the executive branch was the most important thing to him?

  4. transcriptoin_error on

    Musk is a criminal immigrant. He should be denaturalized and deported to a Trump concentration camp.

  5. Hopefully Musk is as successful as he was in the 2025 Wisconsin supreme court race he spent millions on: not at all successful.

  6. See? This is what the Republicans are doing behind the scenes, while everyone is distracted with hammering Trump.

  7. Blame Citizen’s United. Corporations are people too and money is speech so the more you have the louder your voice.

  8. Yep. So buying a Tesla is buying an election for a maga senator. Take notice if there was ever any doubt.

  9. There was a time when this wasn’t allowed. A person could donate at most about $2000 to a campaign.

    Then the Supreme Court came along and created a whopper of a loophole. Corporations had First Amendment “free speech” rights, they said. They couldn’t directly donate to a campaign, but they could put unlimited funds in a Political Action Committee tied to a candidate or party.

    After that politicians didn’t care about polls or the will of the people. With that kind of money they could mold public perception any way they wanted come election time. So all they cared about is to keep the PAC money flowing in.

  10. Dismal-Bullfrog-7851 on

    It’s honestly depressing how normalized this has become. When someone can drop millions like it’s nothing while regular people struggle, it shows how broken our system really is. The fact that this kind of spending gets labeled as free speech instead of what it actually is – buying political influence – tells you everything you need to know. They’re not even pretending anymore that it’s a fair playing field. This isn’t democracy, it’s just legalized corruption where money talks louder than votes.

  11. unaskthequestion on

    We briefly had a chance for campaign finance reform McCain – Feingold was a start and could have been built upon. Instead the SC tore it apart and together with Citizens United, opened the door even wider to this kind of blatant corruption.

  12. Conscious_Courage_26 on

    If he can donate this kind of money he sure could afford to pay his fair share in taxes