The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Beware, Elon Musk’s ‘America Party’ Could Be Democrats' Path Back to Power

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk. Business. The friendship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has been ruptured. They're not just frenemies, but they're kind of hostile. This is a tragedy because we have the world's richest and probably most creative man versus one of the most successful politicians of the 20 and 21st centuries, Donald Trump, and they should be working together. But now Elon Musk and his anger has decided to create a new party called the American Party.

Starting point is 00:00:55 It's very Republican. It's almost identical to the Libertarian Party. And it's designed, I'm afraid, to lose seats for the Republicans. A word of caution. All of us know the history of third-party movements, and it's not very good. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for The Daily Signal. Elon Musk, as we all know now, has had a rupture, the friendship between himself and Donald Trump has been ruptured. Now they're not just frenemies, but they're kind of hostels.

Starting point is 00:01:35 and they're going back and forth against each other. This is a tragedy because we have the world's richest and probably most creative man versus one of the most successful politicians of the 20 and 21st centuries, Donald Trump and wonderful presidents so far, and they should be working together. But now Elon Musk, in his anger, has decided to create a new party called the American Party. And he outlined the platform, and whether it's on regulation, taxes, tariffs, free speech, it's very Republican. It's not close at all to the Democratic platform, but it's really a liberal, it's almost identical to the Libertarian Party.

Starting point is 00:02:21 And it's designed, I'm afraid, to lose seats for the Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections, and maybe even if he was, were to be successful in the 2008 presidential election. A word of caution, all of us know the history of third party movements, and it's not very good, and I'll get to that in a second. So it would be logical and probably wise to say that, well, this is crazy. Elon Musk is just nursing a grudge. He's going to spend a lot of money, and the American Party is going to go nowhere. Remember the name American party. It's kind of reminiscent. I don't know if that was intended. Of course it wasn't, but in 1968, George Wallace and Curtis Lameh, one of my heroes, the head of the B-29 program in World War II, ran as a third party on the American Independent Party. They added independent, but that was an

Starting point is 00:03:20 American party. Third party, they got about 8% of the vote. A lot of people think that 68 vote, because he was a Democrat, hurt Ubert Humphrey more than it did Richard Nixon and might have swung the election. So it's kind of an effort to hurt Donald Trump, both in the Congress and his successor in four years. But here's the question that I have for Elon Musk, and that is, does he really believe that he can pull this off? Apparently he does. I would like to say, as I said, that it's impossible that he can do it, but I would also, I also have said 10 years ago it's impossible that anybody can break into the big three auto companies. We had American motors dropped out.

Starting point is 00:04:05 Remember the DeLorean automobile? I think that was the 70s. That didn't make it. He did. Tesla still has the highest stock value of the big three. I would have thought no one could ever challenge NASA that government monopoly. He did. I thought, wow, he paid so much for Twitter.

Starting point is 00:04:25 How can't just rebrand at X, and after paying three times its market value be a force, would it work? He did it. I don't need to get into Starlink. So everything he's done is successful. So people should be very careful about riding a third party movement off. But that being said, let's just look at similar cases in history. In 1980, John Anderson, a moderate Republican, didn't get along with Ronald Reagan. He said he was going to run as a third party.

Starting point is 00:04:56 Remember that Reagan until about the last three weeks of the campaign was running behind Jimmy Carter. And everybody said, John Anderson, if he takes six or seven, which he did, percent of the vote, Reagan will lose. Reagan won. And remember, there you go again, Jimmy Carter, and that one very dramatic debate. If we, I mentioned the 1968 George Wallace campaign, I think that may have. hurt Humphrey, and then some of you were going to say, well, wait a minute, Victor, George Wallace politically was closer to Richard Nixon than he was Hubert Humphrey, so that's a wash. If you look at the two third party runs by Ross Perrault, remember 1992, he really had a

Starting point is 00:05:40 grudge against the Bush's. He ran, and he got almost 19 percent of the vote. And if you look at the margin that Bill Clinton won by, about eight or nine points, that did hurt George H.W. Bush. I do think that most people felt that Ross Perrault was more conservative than liberal and closer to the Bush position than he was the Clinton. And that third-party effort in 92 spoiled the re-election bit of George H.W. Bush in the large part. He did it again in 1996. Everybody writes that second attempt off him. He pulled out. He was all over the map.

Starting point is 00:06:16 He still won almost 9% of the vote. And if you add up all of Bob Dole's votes, popular votes, and Ross Perrault, and I think he was much closer to Bob Dole than he was to Bill Clinton, who was running for re-election, it's almost equal to the Clinton vote, may or may not have a role. Strong Thurman, he won four states as a Dixiecrout in 1948 election. And, boy, everybody said that Harry Truman was running behind well, behind Thomas Dewey and if Strom Thurman bolted the party they were done for. He took four states, won those electoral votes. Harry Truman still in a land in a comeback surprise, one by

Starting point is 00:07:03 over four points. It had no effect. There's two times I think we could finish by saying third parties did really matter and one was in 1912. Teddy Roosevelt had not, he had taken over after the assassination of William McKinley, he'd finished out his first full term, it was the second term. He wanted to run again. And his appointed successor, I mean, the person that he endorsed, William Howard Taft, he felt was not progressive enough. So he ran against him. And he had a third party, not the American party, but the Bull Moose Party. And what happened? He won 27% of the vote. William Howard Taft only, I think he got six electoral, he only won six states, excuse me. And he only won 23%, but here's the kicker. If you had put Teddy Roosevelt's votes with William Howard Taft,

Starting point is 00:07:54 they would have creamed Woodrow Wilson, who was a hard left progressive. So that was a spoiler election. The other one was a famous one in 1860 when Stephen Douglas, who had had those famous debates in the senatorial race in Illinois against Abraham Lincoln was the Democratic nominee against Abraham Lincoln. John Breckenridge broke off from the Democratic Party and had a Southern Democratic Party, and he took enough votes away from Stephen Douglas that got Abraham Lincoln elected president with only four, thank God, but only 40% of the vote. What am I getting at is there is no record ever that a third party candidate can win the presidency or will make a fundamental change. in the makeup of the Senate, or the House, I don't think in the next midterm election there's going to be

Starting point is 00:08:51 American Party senators or representatives. However, they do in some cases affect elections. And for the most part, it's unpredictable. Nobody knows what the situation will be in 2008. But Elon Musk must know that it won't be a constructive role that he is more akin to Donald Trump and the movement than he is the people who have persecuted him and tried to put him out of business. So let's hope that he looks at history, comes to his senses and says, for all my disagreements with Donald Trump, they pale in comparison to what has become of the Democratic Party. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal.

Starting point is 00:09:41 Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Beware, Elon Musk’s ‘America Party’ Could Be Democrats' Path Back to Power

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