With 'prime minister' talk, the GOP line on Elon Musk takes a weird turn [View all]

[LetMyPeopleVote]

One House Republican declared, “It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.” The closer one looks, the worse the comment appears.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3ldyrvylhxk2n

The Republican Party's line on Elon Musk was already weird.

But seeing a GOP congressman describe the billionaire megadonor as "our prime minister" clearly made a bad situation worse.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/prime-minister-talk-gop-line-elon-musk-takes-weird-turn-rcna185227

But around the same time as Hagerty’s appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” another congressional Republican was going even further. NBC News reported:

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, on Sunday compared tech mogul Elon Musk to a “prime minister,” praising Musk for speaking out against an early version of a stopgap funding bill last week. “It’s kind of interesting,” Gonzales said during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker. It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.”

In context, as a video clip of the comments makes clear, Gonzales’ comments were not a complaint. Rather, the Texas Republican made the observation as if it were a positive development. The congressman added that he spoke with Musk “a couple of times” last week, amid the unexpected Capitol Hill drama......

So, a couple of things.

First, while parliamentary systems around the world vary, prime ministers invariably need to win some kind of election before claiming power. Being pals with a president-elect isn’t supposed to be enough to serve in a position of authority — in this country or any other.

Second, while Gonzales might see the world’s wealthiest individual as “the voice of the people,” there’s compelling evidence to the contrary. In fact, the latest public opinion research suggests that the American people aren’t altogether comfortable with an unelected billionaire exerting governmental influence.

The more Republican officials shrug their shoulders in response to such evidence, the more they invite a backlash.