Top O’ the Briefing
Happy Monday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Toerenbruhl had begun dazzling regulars at the pinochle intensive with what he called his “Sour Patch Kids Soufflé.”
I hope everyone had a fantastic Independence Day Weekend. As I wrote on Friday, it was the first time I’d been off on the 4th in a long time, and I made the most of it. Calories don’t exist when one is celebrating freedom.
I am not dwelling on the flooding in Texas because the horror is so gut-wrenching that words escape me. As for the awfulness of the Democrats who have never encountered a grave they didn’t want to dance on for political purposes, I don’t like to give people like that publicity oxygen. They’ve gone so far beyond the pale this time that former Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner is taking them to task, which my Twitchy colleague Eric V. covered.
We we kick off this week with something far less tragic from the last few news cycles. President Trump and Elon Musk have been in and out of family-type spats for several weeks now. I’ve yet to talk to anyone who is surprised by any of it. When the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world hang out for a while, there’s bound to be some friction in the sandbox.
The relationship has soured again, prompting Musk to launch a new political party — The America Party.
There’s something familiar about all of this for those of us who have been around for a while:
What’s that? A billionaire is starting a right of center third party, promising it’s viable and won’t simply hand democrats enormous power? pic.twitter.com/8Rycxk7CRD
— 🐺 (@LeighWolf) July 6, 2025
After over 40 years as an activist, I’ve lost count of how many times people have been attracted by that new party smell when they’re disgruntled with the status quo. It’s not a horrible sentiment; it’s also not a very practical one. Having written that, I should admit that Elon Musk has a track record of accomplishing things that ordinary people can’t. If he wants to completely reshape the American political landscape he should have a go at it.
Still, that’s probably a bigger longshot than getting to and taking up residence on Mars.
(Side note: I’m going use the term “third party” here, because that’s normal. Yes, I’m aware that there are many other American political parties, but efforts like this are typically referred to as third-party bids, and I don’t have the patience to keep using different phrases just to keep the pedants at bay.)
It has been 171 years since a wildly successful third party — the GOP — was launched. There are two ways to look at that when considering the formation of a new party. The first is that the American electorate is rather locked into the two-party system. The other is that it’s time for a change.
It’s always a combination of frustration and idealistic zeal that starts the new party conversation. There’s a lot of excitement among those who want to break out on their own. The excitement goes through the roof when the guy launching the party also owns the most influential social media platform on Earth.
This all often plays out like the political version of a man and woman meeting in a bar late at night when they’ve both had just enough to drink. They’re attracted to each other, they have a few electric weeks together, then realize that relationships take work. Here’s something I seized upon when reading a VIP post that David wrote about Musk’s latest dream:
Musk’s announcement had volume. It had reach. It shook headlines and made people lean in. But for all that attention, it still hasn’t answered the only question that matters:
What do you actually plan to do?
Because starting a party isn’t a vibe, it’s a vow.
You need candidates. You need paperwork. You need lawsuits, donations, county chairs, and the tenacity to sit through every rules committee meeting between now and 2026 without walking out.
David is correct about the vibe/vow thing. That’s what it should be anyway. In my experience, however, the third party fantasies are heavy on the vibe and fizzle out rather quickly when all that’s involved with the vow part becomes apparent. Then it’s back to vibe time, but it’s a spoiler vibe, because that’s what third parties are best at.
This is something I used to preach about constantly all throughout the Tea Party heyday. The nuts and bolts of politics are an unmitigated grind. There is nothing glamorous about the work that is necessary to make a political party functional and successful. It’s all working the phones and knocking on doors. When I first began volunteering on campaigns, we had actual phone banks. I always seemed to be the only non-smoker in a room filled with them. Good times.
Conservative activists like me have long been frustrated with the GOP. Trust me, there have been many late-night conversations about a new party. My frustration/resentment bank regarding the Republican Party dwarfs Elon’s. In the end, those of us who have been in the trenches know that it’s best to try and affect change by work with — and through — the GOP. We’re aware that it’s a slog.
The good news is that President Trump has been remaking the GOP. That’s also a slog, but the change is real. Things will never be perfect. This is politics, not a romance novel. As David said in his post, “We don’t need a rebrand—we need reinforcements. We don’t need a new party—we need the existing one to finish the job.”
There will be good vibes all around if that happens.
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