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You are here: Home / Celebrities / Why Can’t Musk Do for Politics What He Did for Industry?

Why Can’t Musk Do for Politics What He Did for Industry?

May 29, 2026 at 4:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Economist: “Politics is NOT exactly rocket science. How interesting, then, that Elon Musk is so bad at it. Unlike the two or three industries—and still counting—where Mr Musk has done as much or more than any other human this century to advance the species, politics does not require much technical sophistication or even rigor.”

“The maths tend to be simple addition or division. Yet the calculations matter: the flourishing of the civilization whose multiplanetary future preoccupies Mr Musk requires a healthy politics, much as his own companies, such as Tesla and SpaceX, counted on far-sighted government subsidies and contracts, not to mention the principled rule of law, to succeed.”

“But unlike the other fields Mr Musk has shaped, his contribution to this bulwark of civilization is to make it not more imaginative and optimistic but more atavistic and fearful, and just plain dumber.”

“In politics, in contrast to other industries, Mr Musk has not chosen the path of revolutionary entrepreneurship.”

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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