How Today'$ Democracy Work$

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This coming Tuesday voters in Wisconsin will have the opportunity to tell immigrant Elon Musk to take a long walk off of a short pier.

Tuesday's big political race in Wisconsin is for an officially non-partisan seat on the state's supreme court, a seat which will determine whether liberal forces will keep their bare majority of power in the court, or if the power will switch to conservative forces.  Even though the seat is officially non-partisan, the state's Democratic party is supporting one particular candidate, the liberal, while the Republicans are in bed with the conservative.

The central issue in the Wisconsin appears women's health care and their right to abortion services.

The race has drawn in around $73 million (possibly as much as $81 million) in contributions with the liberal candidate, Circuit Judge Susan Crawford of Dane County currently leading in the money chase over Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel.  But just because Judge Crawford is leading in contributions at the moment, Schimel's side is also relying on some very deep political pockets, one of which belongs to the world's richest man, Elon Musk.  Musk and his political protege, Don Trump, have endorsed Schimel throughout the campaign and have been active on his behalf on social media.   Musk, in the current Wisconsin effort, is pulling out one of the shadier tactics that he used on the 2024 Trump campaign:  he is slathering cash directly upon potential Schimel voters.

The way the Musk money dispersement directly to potential voters works is like this:  Elon's super pac has drafted a. petition against "activist" judges.  ("Activist" in this case is intended to be a derogatory term referencing judges who maintain and practice a liberal judicial philosophy - and conservative "activists" are apparently not a problem, at least to Elon and Trump.). Elon offered voters who signed his petition one hundred dollars, along with an extra one hundred dollars if they got someone else to sign the petition, too.  It's a gambit to whip up enthusiasm among conservative voters in the hope they will then turn out and vote.

The crafty immigrant also announced that he would be awarding two checks of one million dollars each to two individuals to act as spokesmen for his petition.  One person, a man from Green Bay, Wisconsin, has already been selected as one of the spokesmen.

Musk will be giving a "talk" in Wisconsin on Sunday, and the only actual spectators who will be allowed in for his performance will be people who have signed his petition.  Presumably the second "spokesman" (winner) could be announced there.

Musk performed a similar gambit in the 2024 general election where he offered a million-dollar giveaway per day to people in seven key swing states who signed a petition in support of the First Amendment.

Both of the giveaways, last year's and this year's, have the feel and smell of being a sweepstakes, but in point of fact the winners in the first were pre-selected for their ability to influence others in the 2024 venture.  The money was intended to go to people who would be useful to the campaign.  That appears to be the same strategy with the giveaway in Wisconsin, with one "winner" already having been selected.

The Democratic attorney general of Wisconsin went to court to try and stop Elon Musk's latest money shower, but an appellate court has ruled that it can continue.

Current estimates are that Elon Musk has contributed in the neighborhood of $10 million to the state supreme court judicial race in Wisconsin - so far - making him the largest individual contributor. That is probably not how our nation's Founding Father's envisioned democracy working - and certainly not through some sleight-of-hand scheme where potential voters are led to believe that they have as good of a chance as anyone else of "winning" a million dollars.

Votes should be earned, not purchased.