The problem ultimately has less to do with Musk himself than his function as a cultural bellwether. To look at his long and contradictory track record of political statements, one can venture to say that his ideological commitments are shallow, to say the least. Which surely in no small part endears him to his legions of fans and followers — according to YouGov, Musk is the 25th most popular figure in America; predictably, he enjoys 13 points of favorability more with men than with women.
In a country where politics increasingly breaks down by lines of education and cultural attitudes rather than traditional indicators like class or family ties, Musk is the high-profile avatar of the exact kind of ideologically agnostic, anti-PC, notionally Rogan-enjoying middle American who would at one time have balked at identifying too strongly with either party. (To many of them, the “dumb guy things” as described at the top of this essay aren’t dumb guy things at all, but badass, iconoclastic antics.) There are a lot of these voters, and although they might in their heart identify more with one major party or the other, they have unpredictable, cross-pressured views on hot-button political topics like abortion, marijuana legalization or immigration.
Democrats shouldn’t, and don’t, have to grovel for Elon Musk’s goodwill or political affiliation. But it’s worth considering why, in a political era where the salience of speech and cultural issues have been massively elevated, they’ve lost such a powerful and influential figure who would otherwise be aligned with their policy goals — and one who shares a somewhat inscrutable, yet seemingly persuadable outlook with the kind of Americans with whom they’re losing ground.
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