Within the wake of a profitable effort to kill a year-end spending invoice and substitute it with extra restricted laws to maintain the federal government open, Elon Musk declared victory last week on X (previously Twitter), the social media platform he owns:
“Your actions turned a invoice that weighed kilos right into a invoice that weighed ounces!” he crowed. “You’re the media now. VOX POPULI VOX DEI.”
The stopgap funding measure will largely delay main spending choices till after Donald Trump’s inauguration, hold the federal government open by the vacations and at the very least quickly delay probably the most indefensible spending that was crammed into the scale-tipping invoice. However those that imagine the indefensible spending received’t find yourself again within the funds are endearingly optimistic.
Essentially the most fascinating political takeaway from the drama is that the Republican Occasion now has two masters with completely different targets. Musk’s acknowledged mission was to impose fiscal restraint and better effectivity on authorities (although his unspoken motives are a matter of hypothesis). Trump’s goal was to keep away from the hassles of a debate over elevating the federal government borrowing restrict early in his time period, liberating him to rack up extra debt by spending and tax cuts.
Based mostly purely on the political end result, Musk received and Trump misplaced. Though the invoice does spend lower than the sooner model, it doesn’t elevate the debt ceiling.
A case might be made for each targets. I believe Musk is indisputably right about the necessity to reduce spending. And though I don’t need Trump to have the ability to amass extra debt, fights over the borrowing restrict are reckless as a result of they put the total religion and credit score of the US doubtful. The problem for Republican legislators is that they’re caught between the agendas of two figures who’re highly regarded on the correct, and people agendas — and maybe others — are in battle.
We’ll have to attend to see how the politics play out. Within the meantime, I additionally need to deal with the extra philosophical issues with Musk’s place.
Initially, actually weighing the worth or profligacy of a chunk of laws by the ounce, as Musk proposes, isn’t precisely logical. The Nationwide Industrial Restoration Act — the foundational laws of the New Deal — is available in at a cost-effective 18 pages, however that hardly offers one a way of its large impression on the financial system.
Then there’s the concept Musk’s minor funds victory proves his X followers are “the media now.” Huh?
The usual conservative grievance about conventional media is that they mislead the general public within the service of an ideological or self-serving agenda. However Musk rallied his digital mob with a bunch of false claims concerning the bigger-spending invoice. Now he’s suggesting that deceptive the general public within the service of the agenda of the proprietor of a media platform is an excellent triumph. It’s actually a triumph for if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them hypocrisy.
Lastly, Musk’s oft-repeated motto “Vox populi, vox dei” — “The voice of the individuals is the voice of God” — is theological nonsense. Its use by British Whigs to problem monarchical energy within the 18th century was politically defensible, however it doesn’t take a divinity diploma to grasp that, taken actually, the phrase argues that God is subservient to the passions and vicissitudes of public opinion. It’s very troublesome to seek out something within the Previous or New Testomony to again up that concept.
If a ballot had been all it took to vary God’s thoughts, Sodom and Gomorrah would have been nice, Noah wouldn’t have wanted a ship and Jesus wouldn’t have needed to ask God to “forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
One of many earliest mentions of the Latin phrase is discovered within the writings of Alcuin of York, an advisor to Charlemagne. Alcuin advised the primary holy Roman emperor to disregard such declarations of public godliness “because the riotousness of the gang is all the time very near insanity.”
Musk began utilizing the phrase “Vox populi, vox dei” to validate the verdicts of his personal Twitter polls. When customers voted to reinstate Trump’s account two years in the past, Musk declared that the end result he clearly wished amounted to a divine assertion. We will solely guess what this says about Musk’s God complicated and its compatibility along with his position as Trump’s Alcuin.
However my principal objection to Musk’s assertion is that it’s a harmful lie. The concept the biggest mob has God on its aspect is much more pernicious than the notion that laws must be measured in kilos.
