Ballot and money

In non-democratic societies, it is usually the one with the most amount of money that gains the most political power or vice versa. They join politics because they have money and then they acquire more money because they have joined politics. For a very long time, I genuinely believed that corruption in politics and political systems being compromised due to the role of money are the kinds of things that happened in underdeveloped and poor nations. I wasn't entirely wrong.

However, it took many years for me to realise that the proudest democracy in the world, namely the United States of America, is home to some of the most corruption-laden politics mankind has ever seen. The 14th amendment to the US constitution was meant to free slaves but somehow the wording of the amendment was twisted around to make it to mean US corporations' freedom. And especially after the Citizens United of 2010, there is practically no limit to how much money can be spent in elections to influence, corrupt, and actually throw American democracy out the window.

Elon Musk and a bunch of other rich and morally bankrupt individuals have been busy spending millions of dollars in order to influence the outcome of the Midterm elections in the US. They call Musk a genius. I think his only intelligence is to understand early on the role of money in American elections and how he can use that to his advantage. And he is doing exactly that right now.

In non-democratic societies, since public opinion doesn't matter, nobody is spending any energy or money to steer or influence public opinion because the leader with political power can do whatever he or she needs to do in order to advance his or her financial interests and those of their cronies. Things are a bit interesting, however, in the proudest democracy. Since people have the power to vote and I guess that is all the power that is left in the hands of the people, it is important to influence their minds. Propaganda becomes very essential. That money that people with questionable morals such as Elon Musk spend in elections is exactly for that; to reach a massive audience with a message dripping with propaganda. The goal is to create a misinformed citizenry.

People like Elon Musk need enormous government welfare in the form of subsidies for his companies and also to block Chinese EV makers from entering the US market because Tesla cannot compete with them. The power to write those cheques resides with people's elected representatives. This is where the relationship between the candidate running for office and people like Elon Musk becomes very sinister. Elon lays down a simple bargain for the candidate running for office: I help you confuse the electorate with propaganda by paying for slick ads and you help me get these subsidies for my otherwise dying companies. In other words, I help you steal their vote, you help me steal their money. I help you convince them to vote against their interests and you help me take steps to work against the people who elect you. I help you create a misinformed electorate and you help me make sure that investment becomes profitable to an unheard of enormity. This is no exaggeration. Elon Musk had spent about $290 million in US presidential elections in 2024 helping elect Trump and his net worth after that went from about $300 billion to over a trillion dollars. Do the math.

He turns public servants into his private slaves doing his bidding. Even in the absence of proof of all this, and there is proof available though, what possibly could be the reason behind large corporations or billionaires spending millions of dollars to help a certain candidate running for office to reach the voters. Could it be that these billionaires care about the health of American democracy and they are only acting so in a fatherly manner to help the people and the nation?

The last sentence above is as fictional as Israeli claims of victimhood.