I am not too much of a "party" guy. My twenty years of political/governmental experience, as an elected member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, was in a "non-partisan" office. When people voted for the candidates who were running for Supervisor, including me, the ballots didn't identify the candidates by way of their party registration. Voters just picked the person they liked best. Of course, politics as practiced at the national level, and at the state level, is pretty much defined by party affiliation. Only two parties really count, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. There is some pretty good evidence that neither of these political parties is all that beloved, right now, even by their current members.
Elon Musk, the world's most famous billionaire, has now started a new political party, the "America" Party (AMEP). If you click that link, you should be able to view the Federal Election Commission form, officially registering the party. Click right here for a Wall Street Journal article, reporting on Musk's new foray into partisan politics. Click here for a discussion by The Hill.
The FEC form, registering the new party, wasn't signed by Musk; it was signed by Vaibhav Taneja, who is identified as the Party's Treasurer and Custodian of Records. The official address for the Party is at 1, Rocket Road, in Hawthorne, California. That's the location of a SpaceX facility, and it turns out that Taneja is a Musk employee, apparently working at Tesla.
As I was trying to indicate, by saying that I am not much of a "party" guy, I think our political activity ought to be more focused on the people whom we elect to represent us, as opposed to party affiliations. Politicians elected by "Party" always have a dual loyalty, assuming that they have at least some loyalty to the voters whom they supposedly represent. When you have been elected with the assistance of and on behalf of a "Party," your loyalty will necessarily be divided between the voters whose votes put you into office, and the "Party" of which you are a member.
Recently, we witnessed how this divided loyalty works out in practice. Virtually every Republican Member of Congress voted against the interests of the voters in their districts, choosing, instead, to follow the demands of the Party leaders, including, of course, our current president. The Republican Party's "budget bill" will hit almost every lower and middle-income American quite hard, while huge tax advantages will flow to the extremely wealthy. The fact that they were screwing their own voters didn't stop most Republicans from voting for this bill; they followed their "Party" leaders. The same thing happened recently in the California State Legislature, as Democratic Party members voted to gut California's system of environmental review, following the directions they received from Democratic Party leaders, including specifically Governor Gavin Newsom.
Because of this inherent tension between what the "Party" wants (usually at the behest of wealthy interests of various kinds), and what is good for ordinary people - for the voters actually represented by state and federal elected officials - ordinary voters end up being disaffected from their "Party."
Mr. Musk, the world's richest person, wants to capitalize on this, hoping that large numbers of Republicans, and even Democrats, will think that his "Party" will somehow be different, and will really care about the good of the country. That's why Musk is calling his new "Party" the "America" Party. We're all "Americans," right? That "America Party" must be a "Party" that will work for us.
For what it's worth, here's my political advice: Don't you believe it!
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