Wants to break with the Bipartisan system of the United States. Promises a new party, few candidates, maximum impact. But the American story looks at him and shruggs – has seen this movie before
On the day the United States celebrated the 249th anniversary of its independence, Elon Musk launched another idea smelling the manifest: the creation of “America Party.”
He made the proposal to his usual style – in an X survey, the platform he bought, renamed and uses as a stage and sword. More than 65% of about 1.25 million voters said yes, they want “independence from the bipartisan (or unipartidal system, as some call it).
The intention – or threat, or provocation – was published hours after Donald Trump signs his controversial budget law, which will add $ 3.3 billion to US public debt.
Musk, who supported Trump with $ 277 million and even led the now extinct Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), considers this law “insane”. And promised: If approved, the party will be founded the next day. Was approved. And now?
Minimum ambition for maximum impact
Musk’s declared ambition is not – for now – winning the White House.
It cannot, by the way: was born in South Africa and only naturalized American citizen in 2002. The strategy is different. “One way to realize this would be only to focus on two or three seats in the Senate and between eight and 10 districts in the House of Representatives,” he wrote.
With such short margins, it would be enough to be the faithful of the balance and decide “controversial laws in the service of the true will of the people.”
There are no names or districts for now. Only promises and threats. Such as funding rival candidates in primaries against any congressman who voted in favor of the budget proposal.
Musk is annoyed. And unlike Trump, it has liquidity.
The curse of third parties
The idea of breaking with the American bipartisan system is as old as its frustration-and almost always condemned to failure.
Since the nineteenth century, attempts have not been lacking: the Progressive Party of Theodore Roosevelt, born of the split with the Republicans in 1912; The Reform Party, founded by Ross Perot in 1995, after winning 18.9% of the votes in the 1992 presidential race; or the most resistant, such as libertarians and green, who continue to exist, but with limited presence to small circles and municipalities.
The problem is not a lack of will. It is structured. The American system works by simple majority scrutiny-who is first earns everything, who is second loses everything, and those who stay third do not exist.
Maurice Duverger, French politologist, had already noticed him: in systems like this, incentives lead to bipartisanship. Voters choose between two evils the smallest, even if none of the options represent them.
This adds to the astronomical costs of the campaigns, the dependence on media coverage and the inertia of a political system designed to protect itself. To be outsiderin the United States, it requires not only charisma and money – it also requires knowing where to knock on the door. Therefore, the rare success cases circumvented the system inside: Donald Trump used the open primaries of Republicans to take sides in 2016. Bernie Sanders tried the same on the democratic side, though less successfully. Both knew that outside this frame, the hypotheses were null.
Elon Musk, who positions himself as much as revolutionary, knows this. But insist. As if the weight of fortune could compensate for the obstacles of reality.
A party or an ego with budget?
This is where the proposal is weakened. The “America Party” – provisional but revealing name – does not yet exist. It has no structure, no leadership beyond Musk himself, which is not known for working well with others.
It is not known if it is a political vehicle or extent of resentment. And, as journalist Nate Silver wrote, 55% of Americans today have an unfavorable opinion about Elon Musk. The biggest fortune in the world does not buy sympathy.
Musk has means, stage and obsession. But also a problem: if you really want to change American politics, you will have to give protagonism and trust someone who leads for it. And so far, it seems that it is not willing to be number two – not even in its own party.
