Senator Bernie Sanders asked an important question last week, and I answered it. Elon Musk agreed with me on this by sharing his response on Twitter. The question was simple.
“When future generations ask us what we did to stop the climate crisis, how will we answer?”
In my opinion, which I shared on Twitter, the answer will be in the form of another question.
“Why is the Democratic Party so focused on attacking Elon Musk when Elon is an ally who is actually doing more to fight the climate crisis than the politicians who have lost focus?”
Although I wasn’t expecting a reply from Bernie, Elon’s response was something that, to me, made sense. He’s been the point of focus by a few outspoken Democrats who have forgotten that he and Tesla are practically a golden ticket to achieving their clean energy and climate goals. It’s nuts that they are choosing to alienate their allies in this life and death cause.
Yeah, I mean seriously wth!!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 16, 2021
In September, I wrote in another article that the Biden administration could have an ally in Elon Musk and Tesla if they wanted that. At the time, I was referring to the drama around the administration snubbing Elon Musk and Tesla at an EV event. I didn’t think they would continue to be as petty as they have been, or that they would openly lie about General Motors being the leader of the EV industry.
Several high-profile Democrats have been taking turns going after Elon Musk on Twitter. Senator Sanders, Senator Warren, and although he’s not a politician but more of a talking head, Robert Reich. These are all prominent individuals that I once respected. However, now, they are not only refusing to see the good that Elon has accomplished, but are sacrificing the goal of fighting the climate crisis in favor of picking fights on Twitter.
They know Elon Musk will respond — he doesn’t back down from standing up for himself, and at times, he can be just as petty. Personally, I don’t blame him for trolling them. Is it right? Probably not, but I get it, and honestly, I don’t blame him for clapping back.
What’s even more worrisome is the fact that these so-called leaders don’t seem to do their research on the topics they are discussing. Elon Musk not paying his taxes is the current theme here, and the accusations are false. He is a taxpaying citizen. It’s as if they are either refusing to understand and acknowledge that he is paying taxes or maybe they want their bases to believe he’s a freeloader when he’s not.
These politicians have lost focus on their goals and are attacking their natural allies in order to gain attention on Twitter. The only benefit I see from making these moves is getting oneself in the news and rallying certain supporters. Many of these supporters donate to campaigns, share and join in with their voices, and also vote. (That said, a number of their supporters have also been greatly turned off by this and pushed away from supporting them politically.)
And what’s worse is that the mainstream media will simply amplify the “Elon attacked so and so” topics without really giving any context as to what started the whole drama anyway.
Why are these politicians sacrificing their goals to go after one person? For me, I feel as if they really don’t care enough about some of their goals. They get caught up in politics and are now using their platforms and creating a so-called bad guy to sic their supporters on.
But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2021
Recently, the topic was ending world hunger. CNN Business reported that just 2% of Elon’s wealth could solve world hunger, in theory, and quoted David Beasley, director of the United Nations’ World Food Program. In response, Elon said that if the World Food Program could describe how $6 billion would solve world hunger, he would sell Tesla stock and provide the funding right then and there. However, Elon pointed out that the accounting needed to be open-sourced so that the public could see exactly how the money is spent.
Beasly admitted that the CNN headline was inaccurate. However, I find it odd that he waited until Elon offered to sell $6 billion worth of Tesla stock to share this tidbit. During all of this time, critics and haters alike were claiming an array of things — from Elon hating poor people to Elon being a rich billionaire who refuses to help the poor. A lot of these statements were responses toward tweets by Senator Sanders and Robert Reich, who have been periodically tweeting about Elon Musk and his wealth.
The focus on Elon Musk and his wealth shouldn’t be the priority of the most popular and outspoken Democrats, such as Sanders and Warren. Instead, they should redirect their efforts into working with allies such as Elon and Tesla on solving this crisis.
When future generations ask us what we did to stop the climate crisis, how will we answer? We will have to admit that we chose to alienate our allies in this cause. And future generations may have to pay for our bickering.
I don’t think any of us had high-profile Democrats going after Elon Musk on our 2021 bingo cards.
Featured image by ijmaki from Pixabay
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