Disha Mitra
Elon Musk visibly back to centrism as he says he would support centrist candidates of both parties.
Source: The Guardian
This week, billionaire CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to proclaim his support for ‘centrist candidates’ for ‘both parties.’ Clearly, this indicates another shift to his rather controversial and ambiguous views on politics in the US. This comes as he had visibly stated last month how he could “no longer support” Democrats, instead deciding to vote Republican.
However, his recent tweet, replying to Andrew Yang, now shows how he would support measures that would lead to the election of more ‘centrist candidates.’ Yang is a former Democrat and founder of the Forward Party. As one would expect, the conversation initiated on social media platform Twitter, with an initiation from Yang. Previously, the Tesla CEO has appeared rather vocal in expressing his thoughts on the platform irrespective of how controversial they might to be.
In his tweet, Yang mentioned Musk, asking him if he could ‘implement #RankedChoiceVoting for Twitter polls?’ He stated how this would a ‘game changer’ for several people. To this, the billionaire CEO stated how he would support ‘anything’ that would lead to the election of more ‘centrist candidates.’
Is this a reference to open primaries? I think those are a good idea.
I am in favor of anything that would result in more centrist candidates being elected!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2022
This remark from Musk resulted in a question from user of the platform asking him if he still intended ‘to maintain an equality’ in case of political donation ‘to both parties?’ Musk responded to the user stating that he would ‘donate to centrist candidates on both parties.’ Earlier, he had stated that he was a “moderate R.”
The tweet from Musk:
I will donate to centrist candidates in both parties
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2022
Clearly, Musk’s latest statement appears rather contradicting owing to his relatively newer declaration on politics. Historically, as he had stated, he had ‘voted overwhelmingly for Democrats.’ This visibly changed last month as he referred to the Democrats as a ‘party of division and hate.’
Moreover, he specifically clarified that he will ‘vote Republican,’ that too with an illustration depicting his transition. This move was from the centre of the political sphere, along with that from the ‘woke progressive’ Democrats. However, just a month following this, he changed his stance yet again- “A party more moderate on all issues than either Reps or Dems would be ideal.” Surprisingly, this appears somehow perfectly aligned with Yang’s agenda with the Forward Party.
But currently, Musk’s comments on wanting to donate to both parties’ ‘centrist candidates,’ clashes with several assumptions regarding Musk possibly committing Yang’s goals.