Old Socialist comments.

stephenkmacksd.com/

Jul 09, 2025

Mr. Tomasky’s potted history of the dismal failure ‘Third Party Candiates’ in American Elections, is about the Self-Rescue Project of The New Democrats, still led by the Clinton ménage. Hillary Clinton could not win an election against Trump! Yet Tomasky posits that somehow Musk is different, in a 1457 word potted history of failures, false starts and wishful thinking, that somehow Trump can be deafeated? Musk is a self- infatuated megalomaniac and subject to toxic moods and political retreats aided by reinvetions ?

Editor: Tomasky posits this:

I saw a lot of chortling after Elon Musk’s announcement last week that he intends to start a third party, the America Party. Chortle away if you like. But this effort, at least according to what Musk said his goals are, is completely different from other third-party bids in recent U.S. history, and I’ve been amazed these last couple of days at how few people seem to understand that.

Editor: Tomasky self-presents as above all other political commetators, in his vision of a possible Musk future? The Reader might think/ask in this examinations of Musks grand strategies, via Histories provided by Tomansky, about the victory of Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim Democratic Socialist, won the New York City Democratic mayoral primary on June 24, 2025? The Macro and the Micro meet at what crossing?

…

I saw a lot of chortling after Elon Musk’s announcement last week that he intends to start a third party, the America Party.

…

Third parties in the United States are jokes for one simple reason: They are built around presidential candidacies. That is a ridiculous goal, and it always has been.

…

Let’s look at the most successful third-party presidential candidate in modern American history: Ross Perot in 1992. He struck a nerve among folks who were then referred to collectively as “the radical center.”

…

However: In electoral terms, Perot was a joke. He won zero Electoral College votes. In fact, he didn’t come remotely close to winning a single electoral vote. He finished third in every state.

Editor: Yet the Perot vote gave the edge to Bill Clinton!

…

This is why that overhyped No Labels nonsense from 2024, which got a lot of silly press, was ridiculous (and run by hustlers, picking the pockets of gullible, ill-informed rich people).

…

But the presidency is not Musk’s goal. He posted on July 4 that his goal would be “to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.”

Editor: The Musk’s strategy is that of an insergency, not of a Third Party nor of a ‘radical center’.

Editor: Tomasky begins his self-congratulation!

Now that is a different kettle of fish.

…

First, the obstacles. They’re formidable. There’s this thing in political science called Duverger’s law. French political scientist Maurice Duverger studied party systems in the 1950s and found that countries that elect their legislatures in winner-take-all single-member districts (as we do in the United States) tend to narrow down to having two parties.

…

So let’s apply Duverger’s law to Musk’s effort. He’s going to be fielding candidates under his America Party banner in a handful of (presumably) carefully chosen congressional districts. The question is, can an America Party candidate for the House win 34 percent of the vote in a three-way general election?

…

Editor: Here is where Tomasky reaches his political stride, between these two paragraphs?

…

The answer is: It won’t be easy, but it also isn’t impossible. First of all, it has happe;ned. Bernie Sanders and Angus King are independent senators. Both first made it to Washington—King to the Senate in 2012, Sanders to the House back in 1990—by beating Democratic and Republican opponents.

^…

Musk’s agenda right now seems to be radical libertarian. That will appeal to his uber-rich tech bro friends, but it won’t peel away enough Republicans to win a House seat. He needs to find a couple MAGA Achilles’ heels and build a platform around them. (Also, if Musk’s platform is essentially libertarian, it raises the question of why he doesn’t plow his resources into the existing Libertarian Party, as it so desires.)

…

Editor: Tomasky revels in the ‘discovery’ of the Musk’s Political Methodology! Yet how can the politics of the political moment be changed permanently ? Does Musk have the political staying power, or the commitment to wage such a battle over time? Or will his interest fade with time, and the new vistas of Space Travel’s challendes present themselves?

Old Socialist.