Money, inaction both involved

In his well-written letter, Elon Musk And The Power Of Money, Mr. Richard Barsanti expresses his justifiable concern for the need of public funding for election campaigns to keep wealthy influencers like Elon Musk from having more influence than tens of millions of ordinary citizens.

He opines, “A vigorous democracy would have public funding of election campaigns with strong limits on contributions so citizens could participate in politics as genuine equals”

I agree with Mr. Barsanti, yet tens of millions of those same ordinary citizens participated by choosing Donald Trump and the plutocracy that comes with it. Perhaps they thought it was the best path toward getting eggs for 99 cents again.

Meanwhile millions of other ordinary citizens didn’t participate at all. They wanted to vote Republican but couldn’t allow themselves to vote for Trump. They also couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Harris because they “just didn’t know enough about her,” among other reasons. So they just didn’t vote.

As a result, the combined actions and inactions of ordinary citizens gave Musk and other influencers carte blanche to keep on influencing.

Soon we’ll be living in fear of retribution. At least we’ll have cheap eggs for breakfast to comfort us.

Louis S. Guagenti

Arlington Heights