Grassroots vs. Gigawealth: Corbyn Builds a Movement, Musk Builds Brand Distraction

Corbyn Ignites Class Politics In The UK, Musk Fumbles For Meaning Here

On Thursday, Members of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, both formerly of the Labour Party, started what will soon be a new working class party in the U.K. It already has more members than either the Tories or Reform, the right-wing populist party fronted by Nigel Farage… and 500 people a minute are signing up to join, about a tenth of then already sending in contributions. Wealth redistribution? Bank nationalization? They will certainly be topics for discussion— long before Sir Keith Starmer’s New Labour Party ever considers them. 

Last week, The Guardian noted that Corbyn and Sultana's new party has a better chance of taking root because so many people know who Corbyn is— according to polling, 98% of voters, more than Prime Minister Starmer or Trump-aligned neo-fascist politician Nigel Farage! 

“Everyone knows who Jeremy Corbyn is, everyone knows who he stands for. And with any new party, that is not even half the battle. It’s three-quarters of the battle,” said Robert Ford, a professor of political science at Manchester University.

“A lot of people don’t like what he stands for, but that doesn’t matter, because he’s not aiming for everyone.”

… “With the best will in the world, not even Zarah Sultana, I suspect, is expecting Jeremy Corbyn to be the next prime minister,” Ford said. “That’s not the purpose of it. The purpose of it is to offer an outlet for those who think Labour have driven too far to the right. So he doesn’t have the same problem that he and his advisers had a few years ago.”

I don’t know how many people recognize the name Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and former Trump best friend, current Trump antagonist, but I suspect it’s a lot more than almost any members of Congress. He says he’s starting a third party here in the U.S., the America Party. It may turn out to be wishful thinking or just another of his harebrained schemes that go nowhere like the various Hyperloop tunnels that never materialized, the humanoid robots that remain science fiction, brain chips that would cure paralysis or colonizing Mars within a decade. Musk’s America Party might join that long list of overhyped, underdelivered vanity projects— nothing more than another shiny distraction posing as techno-utopian bluster and libertarian delusion. Or maybe not.

Polling shows that Americans say they’re open to a third party alternative to the Republicans and Democrats— but not one connected to Musk. Quinnipiac, for example, reported this month that 49% of voters say they’d consider joining— whatever that means— a third party as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties, while 45% say they wouldn’t. Unfortunately for Musk, “77% say they would not consider joining a third party if Elon Musk created it as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties.” Only 17% would consider joining a Musk party.

Some Democrats say they’re hoping he goes through with it in time for the midterms. Yesterday, Jacob Wendler reported that “Musk’s yet-unfulfilled plans to form an America Party could threaten Republicans already fighting to defend their seats by razor-thin margins in next year’s midterms elections, Democrats argued, by siphoning off more disgruntled conservatives from Republicans than disaffected liberals from the Democrats… Musk has publicly called for primary challengers to Republicans who voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in addition to promising to launch his own third party.”

Democrats and Republicans have long complained about the spoiler effect of third parties— like the Greens or Libertarians— in close battleground races. But neither of those parties have been able to muster resources like Musk’s.

And new polling this week from Marquette University Law School found that 40 percent of Republicans say they would be somewhat or very likely to support an America Party candidate in their state or congressional district, as opposed to just one in four Democrats.

… The party, which Musk has not yet taken major formal steps to establish, still faces several procedural and strategic hurdles. But should he go through with it, the former Department of Government Efficiency chief suggested his party could ‘laser-focus’ on two to three Senate seats and eight to 10 House districts to give the third party a sizable enough presence to exercise influence over contentious legislation.

Because of that narrow mandate— and Musk’s particular focus on hitting Republicans on fiscal irresponsibility— the third-party bid could be a vulnerability for the GOP, said Heath Mayo, an anti-Trump conservative activist and founder of the advocacy group Principles First.

“My first reaction was, it seems pretty confined in substance,” Mayo said. “And because of that, I think it pulls some of the following that he has that has sort of found its way into the Republican Party base.”

… Musk’s ability to successfully field third-party bids will be highly dependent on the particular districts he targets and the candidates he puts on the ballot, said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP operative.

“Elon Musk’s money is enough to sway a significant number of elections,” Gerow said. “But you have to look at the individual candidates and the message they run on. There’s a lot of factors that will play into whether or not he’s successful. I think at this stage it’s hard to predict the outcome when we don’t really know what he’s going to do.”

Even if Musk fails to get candidates on the ballot, his bad blood with Trump will be sorely felt by Republicans, who benefited massively from his largesse in 2024.

Ultimately, Democrats are still confident the effort would more than likely play out to their benefit should it come to fruition, said Georgia Democratic Party Chair Charlie Bailey, who is gearing up for one of the most competitive Senate races next year.

“I think if something has Elon Musk’s branding on it, that you’re not going to attract Democrats, and you’re not going to attract many independents,” Bailey said. “I think if it’s got Elon Musk branding, you’re likely to attract the vast majority of right-wing Republicans, so I don’t think those voters are probably that gettable for us anyway.”

The difference between the America Party and what Corbyn and Sultana are trying to build couldn’t be starker. One is born of impulse and ego, with no organic base, no democratic accountability and no coherent political vision beyond vague tech-bro libertarianism. The other is a movement rooted in decades of working-class struggle, with real community leaders, real societal grievances and real proposals for solutions.

Musk wants to disrupt politics the same way he’s disrupted transportation, communication and space exploration— by promising the impossible and delivering a branding exercise. Corbyn is offering something far more dangerous to the status quo: a party that might actually mean it when it says it stands for ordinary people.