Elon Musk’s $100 Move: Legalized Corruption?

Is this the future of American politics?

Edy Zoo
5 min readOct 19, 2024
Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

The cat’s out the bag and it’s come to play with the dogs. What gives? The weathiest individuals that run America, untouchable titans like Elon Musk, no longer hiding in the crevices of our splintered democracy. Now they step boldly into daylight with the clear objective of shaping the nations course. How, you may ask? With the flick of a their financial writst.

Once, there was a pretense, a veneer of distance from politics. Donations were laundered through super PACs, money funneled into elections with plausible deniability. Now? That façade is crumbling. And what’s behind it? A grin that says: We don’t need to hide anymore.

Musk’s support for Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is no secret. His America PAC is not a quiet supporter; it’s a roaring lion, dishing out incentives like a hand dealing cards in a rigged game. He’s offering $100 to Pennsylvanians — yes, cash — just to sign a petition.

The petition itself, masked as a crusade for free speech and gun rights, is beside the point. What really matters is this: Musk isn’t campaigning for a cause; he’s campaigning for control. Control over votes, over elections, over democracy itself. It’s a power play as bold as it is brazen.

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Edy Zoo
Edy Zoo

Written by Edy Zoo

Edy Zoo is a social critic, theologian, and philosopher who writes about social subjects.