A quarter of a billion dollars is a lot of money. According to recent media reports, citing Federal Trade Commission documents, that is the approximate amount that Elon Musk donated through various political action committees (PACs) to help elect Donald Trump.

Of this amount, Musk spent $20.5 million to set up the RBG PAC, named after the late liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This PAC launched ads promoting the message that Justice Ginsburg agreed with Trump’s position on abortion because RBG believed that the federal government should not dictate our abortion laws. Justice Ginsberg is probably spinning in her grave over this remark.

Trump claimed credit for the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade because of the three justices that he appointed to the court. This opened the opportunity for the states to set up a disjointed patchwork of abortion rulings. I do not believe this is the outcome Justice Ginsburg would have wanted about how abortion should be regulated.

I find it interesting that, for years, Republicans used to rail against the large donations from liberal backers of the Democratic Party like billionaire George Soros. Not a peep out of Republicans over Musk’s donations. If the money flows to their candidate everything is copasetic.

The bottom line, whether it is Musk or Soros, there needs to be a reasonable limit on the dollar amount an individual or PAC can legally contribute to a political campaign. If not, then the sound of money speaking will drown out the voices of individual Americans.

Samuel Rosenthal
Portland