I remember when Elon Musk was a “good billionaire” friend. In my opinion there are no good billionaires because the pursuit of money to that extent requires exploitation and abuse on a grand scale.

So yeah I don’t give a fuck if he has all the money in the world, I don’t think money should be the deciding factor in elections. I don’t think that any string a billionaire offers is worth it.

If we run a candidate who’s values authentically align with what Dem voters want, why turn down donations?

Because they can tell you all day that they align with your values and then suddenly they don’t. Remember Elon Musk? Tech billionaire, “real life tony stark”, whose electric vehicles were going to usher in a new era of renewable transportation… People lie.

He didn’t say that they could be relied on. He said he’d take their fucking money. Why do you think that’s an unpragmatic strategy?

Because I understand how the world works? That concessions are made in back room deals and that the money doesn’t change hands until the buyer feels confident they are getting what they want? We know how this goes.

I would forego all billionaire donations to ensure the party wasn’t being controlled by back room interests, you know the deals made to get the contribution? They aren’t adhering to campaign finance limits they are drowning out normal Americans with their outside influence.

“Billionaire campaign spending on this scale drowns out the voices and concerns of ordinary Americans. It is one of the most obvious and disturbing consequences of the growth of billionaire fortunes, as well as being a prime indicator that the system regulating campaign finance has collapsed,” said David Kass, ATF’s executive director.

https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaire-clans-spend-nearly-2-billion-2024-elections/

“We’ll continue to take money from the Good Billionaires” - New DNC head

Both parties are owned by the wealthy, which is why you don’t see Corporate democrats fighting against this shit. Their job is to make sure that if things don’t go red, at least they won’t go too blue. A good chunk (and the controlling collective) of the democratic party are more than happy to play the controlled opposition as they rake in your money to ensure you can’t use it to meaningfully make change.