Some Comments as Bannon and Musk Lock Horns

A Debate Rages On

I will die on the hill saying that I have probably seen nothing more politically unwise (to put it mildly) than to help the Left weaken the Right by taking shots at the tech bros over labor right now before Trump takes office.

All of the people who are raging at Elon Musk now have always done so way before this debate - people like Steve Bannon and Batya Ungar-Sargon. Bannon has never liked Musk’s transhumanism exploration nor his cozy relationship with China. Ditto Ungar-Sargon, but for slightly different reasons. He’s populist Right, and she’s populist Left.

Ungar-Sargon is wrong when she says the American people voted against HB1 visas. It was not an issue. We were talking about the border, about illegal immigration, not legal immigration. But perhaps MAGA folks should have put that front and center since it suddenly appears like their most urgent and important issue.

There are two competing visions for our future. One is a more socialist-leaning viewpoint of Ungar-Sargon, wherein the government is lifting all American workers so that we can bring back the middle class, which no longer exists. As she often points out, the Democrats only care about the credentialed elite or the extreme poor.

Steve Bannon doesn’t support the socialist viewpoint but wants a thriving middle class. He’s a nationalist, which means America First all the way. Secure the border, deport all illegals, end the HB1 VISA program, deport all of those workers, and give those jobs to Americans. That, he believes, will solve the problem.

The “tech bros” see things slightly differently. They suddenly see an extremely competitive world with countries that raise their children much differently. China doesn’t even allow social media, for instance. So how to race to the top when you are held back by various complications like DEI, or like a generation raised on psych-meds and helicopter parents?

Much of it is probably just a lazy shortcut for them to move fast and break things. Hire cheap, smart labor that won’t complain. It’s kind of like companies that won’t give their employees full-time so as not to pay for healthcare. Ungar-Sargon and others would be complaining about that, for instance, or the minimum wage, traditionally Democrat positions, but they have billionaires to go after and that’s much easier but it’s really the same argument. Pro-business vs. pro-worker.

Musk, Ramaswamy, David Sacks, and anyone in Silicon Valley are forward-thinking. They want to move as fast as those other countries if not faster, and Trump wants that, too. He wants America to compete and win. It’s about doing it as fast as possible and as cheaply as possible.

So, for Bannon and Ungar-Sargon, success at the expense of American workers is not worth it. Even if it means we might get to Mars faster or achieve more advanced scientific breakthroughs, it isn’t worth it if no Americans can get ahead. Why bother with populism if all it does is make the rich richer and screw over Americans?

Bannon is the OG MAGA influencer who is clearly irritated by Elon Musk’s sudden influence over Trump. Bannon believes Trump and MAGA would have won without Musk. I do not. I know that Trump's landslide victory had much to do with the involvement of Musk, Ramaswamy, RFK, Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard.

I mean, are we forgetting?

What made Trump’s coalition so appealing to many people who aren’t in the world of Bannon and the MAGA faithful is that he built a team of rivals, Lincoln style, drawing from all industries. That doesn’t mean MAGA has to sell out the middle class or not help fortify the American worker, but it does mean maybe you don’t shit where you eat.

Are they forgetting that Musk freed the bird? You know, the richest man in the world who bought Twitter? He also spent weeks in Pennsylvania to help drive the vote, using his status and wealth to bring in new voters to help take the state. He gave away one million to people who signed his petition. His support of Trump made voting for Trump far less stigmatized. He has put his business, personal wealth, and reputation to stand apart from the rest of the billionaires and help MAGA win.

I have said many times that I am not a Conservative. I’m not really MAGA. I support Trump voters and the MAGA movement, but I have never claimed to be one of its leaders. My participation in this movement was more about removing the Left from power than it was shaping what it will become.

Now that the Left’s empire has collapsed, there is fertile ground to grow America the way the people want from now on. It seems that one arm of the MAGA movement wants to pull America forward, and the other one wants to pull it backward. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

Here is what I do know. There is a massive alignment of very powerful and influential people who are just waiting to say, “I told you so.” They’re waiting to relish watching MAGA tear itself apart, especially watching them turn on Musk after all he’s done to diminish their monopoly on information. They’re waiting to win back Big Tech by giving them what they want. And MAGA will lose again.

Here are some comments.