Accepting a Bribe
This story is as old as the Two Dollar Bill. By the way, Two Dollar Bills, with Thomas Jefferson on the front and Monticello on the back, still show up occasionally. In fact, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing still prints them, millions of them each year (BEM).
I know, I know; most of you are thinking that you haven’t even seen a One Dollar Bill recently. My wallet, which always used to have “emergency cash”, is now filled in with plastic. The local Kentucky Fried Chicken store recently gained notoriety as the first in Pataskala that doesn’t accept cash. That’s legal, by the way, (Federal Reserve). Cash is seldom a part of my life anymore. But even when it is, it doesn’t often include a Two Dollar Bill.
Why not? Why are Two Dollar Bills, “odd”? The answer goes back to the late 1800’s. Politics then was dominated by big city “Machines”, the most famous one called Tammany Hall in New York . Government services were “transactional”; if a voter wanted fire service, or police protection, or the holes in the road fixed; they needed to demonstrate “support” for Tammany candidates. In fact, it was an implicit contractual deal: vote for Tammany, or don’t call the fire department. In those days, the “contract” was sealed with a Two Dollar Bill (today worth the equivalent of Seventy Dollars). But even in those “bad-old-days”, selling the vote was illegal, tantamount to accepting a bribe for an “official” act.
Everyone Knows
That particular denomination became symbolic for a crime, selling the vote. When a consumer spent a Two Dollar Bill, “everyone knew” (to use a current Republican talking point) that they gave up that American privilege for cash. So using the bill went “out of style”, so much so that in the mid-1960’s production was stopped for a while. And today, many Americans see Two Dollar Bills as “rare” (really not) and hoard them right beside their can, or in my case, small barrel, of pennies.
Which brings us to Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world. Here’s his newest “deal”. It only applies to registered voters in the swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin. If they agree to sign his “First and Second Amendment” petition, supporting “freedom”, and implicitly, Donald Trump; they are entered in the daily drawing for One Million Dollars.
What’s the point? To be eligible, you must be a registered voter in a swing state, willing to support Trump (New York Post). The “contract” is the signature on the petition, making you eligible to win One Million Dollars, awarded every-single-day until the election.
Buying Votes
Elon Musk has a net worth just shy of Two Hundred Seventy Billion dollars (Investopedia). So giving away sixteen million just isn’t a big deal to him, less than one percent of his total wealth. But most of us would agree, that a million dollars would be a transformative amount to “win”. The question is, just like the Two Dollar Bills of yore; is this legal, or is he literally, buying votes? In order to be eligible to win you must be a registered voter in a swing state. Musk trying to “buy” votes, getting them to register and agree for the purpose of “winning” a million dollars. So the answer to that question is, of course he is.
Musk points out: “I think this is kind of fun, and you know, it seems like a good use of money basically” (CNBC). But it’s against federal law to bribe folks to vote or register to vote (USC §18, 597). And, unlike a current Two Dollar Bill, a million dollars is a serious bribe.
Blurry Lines
We are in an era where the lines between legal and illegal campaign activities are blurred. It used to be “allowed” to protest election results in Court, but “unacceptable” to lead protests and use violence to try to overturn the election. That has gradually changed; in modern times starting with the “Brooks Brothers Riot” in 2000, when Republican operatives disrupted ballot counting in Florida in order to try to gain election for George W Bush.
Literally billions of dollars will be spent on this year’s Presidential election, over $30 per vote for 150 million voters. The “cash line” is blurred. What was the stigma of the Two Dollar Bill, now becomes the privilege of using a vote to win a million. It’s unlikely that Elon Musk will ever be held accountable for a crime; he can afford the lawyers to keep litigation going for years. And if he is held accountable, maybe he’ll be fined a few hundred thousand dollars, “chump-change” to him.
But all that misses the point. Our votes are supposed to be our “best judgment” for what’s good for us, and the Nation. They shouldn’t be for sale, not for a million; and not even for a Two Dollar Bill.
