This is a guest post from FrameLab contributor Jason Sattler. Jason is LOLGOP on BlueSky and pretty much any other
Free childcare and buses. Cheaper groceries. Lower rents. Whether or not you support Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary
Democrats are losing the narrative war—and voters. Here's why a Joe Rogan copycat won’t fix that.
This is a guest post from FrameLab contributor Jason Sattler. Jason is LOLGOP on BlueSky and pretty much any other social media platform. His writing has appeared in USA TODAY, Wired.com, the New York Daily News and Alternet.
The richest man on Earth just announced he's starting a party for “the people.” There's just one problem—he's the only one invited.
Elon Musk used the July 4th signing of the historically unpopular GOP budget bill to announce “The America Party,” a new so-called “centrist” political party. Time will tell how serious this ploy is. But it presents a perfect opportunity to focus on a key revelation from Dr. George Lakoff’s work: “Centrism” is a scam.
“Moderate and centrist are political weasel words,” Dr. Lakoff and Gil Durán wrote last summer. “Their definitions vary widely because there is no such thing as a moderate or centrist ideology.”
George Lakoff
Musk is trying to rebrand hardcore, right-wing anti-government views as the “center”—a mirage that exists only in the minds of the media and establishment Democrats. It's the same trick that lures Democratic candidates into lurching right in an effort to chase a mythical, non-existent “middle.”
Lakoff readers will notice Musk's marketing prowess led him to sell his new party as backing “your freedom”—the most powerful moral frame in American politics.
But what is Musk offering that the Republican Party isn't? When asked what turned him against Trump, he cited “increasing the deficit from $2T under Biden to $2.5T. This will bankrupt the country.”
Musk rarely mentions taxes because he's thrilled with trillions in tax cuts for himself. How do you cut the deficit without raising taxes? You gut programs that help families.
Musk wants cuts that would destroy Social Security and Medicare. The budget bill he's protesting is already “the most unpopular major law in at least 30 years” partly because it cuts $500 billion from Medicare—and that's not enough for him.
There's no appetite in America for a party that cuts government while keeping the rich from paying their fair share. As pollster G. Elliott Morris found, the political coalition Musk claims to represent is so small it doesn't show up in charts.
There's clearly vengeance toward Trump at play. But Elon Musk will never do Democrats favors.
What Musk is doing is what he's been doing since buying Twitter: empowering anti-government authoritarians while weakening democracy. He's making a mockery of campaign finance laws that allow one man this much power.
Consider what he reposted to his 221.7 million X followers:
Musk says he plans to “focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.” What he wants is veto power over the GOP to ensure larger cuts for workers, and he has the cash to do it.
Like Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s candidacy—almost singularly financed by Trump's biggest donor—the America Party could be designed to draw millions of “independents” into the GOP column at a key moment.
Musk shares core values with MAGA: hatred of organized labor, lust to pollute unaccountably, vicious transphobia. He's a declared enemy of “empathy”—the value underlying all democratic progress in America. Even Musk's Grok AI chatbot trends toward Nazism, providing a big clue about his political aspirations.
The America Party's only purpose is to define Musk’s extreme reactionary politics as mainstream. But Musk has already exposed his strategy: The New York Times reports he consulted Curtis Yarvin, a writer who opposes democracy and favors corporate monarchy, for ideas on forming his new party.
The more details we get, the more Musk’s party sounds like an Anti-America party. And we already have one of those—Trump's GOP.
Musk's latest political ploy reminds us that no one person should ever have this much power to warp our democracy. He personifies the untouchable corruption the Roberts Court unleashed with Citizens United.
Musk is using his fortune—much of it created with government subsidies and loans—to drown out our voices with money and propaganda.
But the choice is simple: democracy for the people, or a party of one.
Democracy means the people decide—not one billionaire with extremist advisors. If Musk-controlled candidates appear in 2026, remember: this isn't about “left vs. right,” it's about democracy vs. oligarchy. Research every candidate. Share this analysis. Demand your representatives reject deals with democracy's enemies.
The choice really is simple: government of, by and for the people — or government of, by and for the billionaires.
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