Mississippi Republicans hate the free market

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

Mississippi restricts electric car sales: https://apnews.com/article/tesla-electric-car-sales-restrictions-0478ec0e0859b627a38511e2a4082a99

[Utilitarian Governance]

You can make the same argument about Gavin Newsom and his out phasing of gas powered cars. But two wrongs don't make a right.

[DrScholl]

This is why Mississippi will stay broke.

[Sic Semper Tyrannis]

You can make the same argument about Gavin Newsom and his out phasing of gas powered cars. But two wrongs don't make a right.

The difference is that gas powered cars cause craptons of air pollution and contributes to climate change, both of which justify them being phased out. These restrictions on electric vehicles are only "justified" by conservative grievance politics.

[Landslide Lyndon]

You can make the same argument about Gavin Newsom and his out phasing of gas powered cars. But two wrongs don't make a right.

But Newsom is a commie, so that's expected.

[jojoju1998]

My Dad's family lives in Lousiana. They say Electric cars are almost non existent there.

[MABA 2020]

Most of the right wing doesn't believe in the free market anymore, it's all about fighting the woke agenda these days.

[7,052,770]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

[Damocles]

The difference is that gas powered cars cause craptons of air pollution and contributes to climate change, both of which justify them being phased out. These restrictions on electric vehicles are only "justified" by conservative grievance politics.

Cars in general are bad for the environment and are more an over-consumed luxury good than anything else. Those who do indeed like high-performance gas-powered cars should continue to be able to get access to them, but they should (rightly) pay the full cost of the privilege to do so - fuel taxes, registration, parking, licensing, insurance, negative externalities to others, and so on. For those who don't want to or can't pay those prices, we should have more cohesive, dense, transit-oriented development, and multi-modal transportation systems.

The answer is not mass electrification of existing car infrastructure. It's about giving Americans real choices on how to meet their transportation needs, and allowing them to gravitate naturally towards the one that makes the most economic sense for them in most cases.

[Landslide Lyndon]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

The guy has gone full tin-foil hat crazy.

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1635742235416297480

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

No one ever had any respect for Elon except for weird libertarians.

[President Johnson]

My Dad's family lives in Lousiana. They say Electric cars are almost non existent there.

Why restricting something that barely exists then? Makes literally no sense to me. It's almost like restricting the sales of air conditioners in Greenland.

[Mr. Matt]

Stop the sales of a Trumpist CEO's product to own the libs

[Stranger in a strange land]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

The guy has gone full tin-foil hat crazy.

https://twitter.com/Wilson__Valdez/status/1635742235416297480

While it's impossible for someone as rich as Musk to lose his fortune, I definitely see him entering into a Howard Hughes-esque downward spiral.

[Santander]

This isn't really about electric cars, it's more about the threat the go-to-market model of well-funded direct-to-consumer manufacturers poses to the small businesses (car dealers) that operate under a century-old business model, especially in a rural state like Mississippi. I personally lean against this type of regulation, but it is understandable.

You can make the same argument about Gavin Newsom and his out phasing of gas powered cars. But two wrongs don't make a right.

The difference is that gas powered cars cause craptons of air pollution and contributes to climate change, both of which justify them being phased out. These restrictions on electric vehicles are only "justified" by conservative grievance politics.

Electric cars are bad for the environment, too.

[longtimelurker]

Mississippi restricts electric car sales: https://apnews.com/article/tesla-electric-car-sales-restrictions-0478ec0e0859b627a38511e2a4082a99

Did anyone catch this from the article:

"the state’s only Tesla store in Brandon, which will be allowed to remain open under the new law."

Now we see what Reeves is up to.  He wants to keep Joe Biden from selling cars.

[dead0man]

This seems to be more about protecting dealerships than anything else.  Protectionism is always bad.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

My Dad's family lives in Lousiana. They say Electric cars are almost non existent there.

Why restricting something that barely exists then? Makes literally no sense to me. It's almost like restricting the sales of air conditioners in Greenland.

Republicans LOVE virtue signalling. They also love mocking the left and center-left for virtue signalling.

[Del Tachi]

All the ballyhooing about "Republicans" in this thread is quite grand.

The bill passed the MS Legislature with bipartisan majorities.  39-13 in the Senate and 105-9 (!) in the House.

18 of the 22 no votes against the bill in the Legislature were from Republicans.  Democrats overwhelmingly supported it LOL 

[Del Tachi]

My Dad's family lives in Lousiana. They say Electric cars are almost non existent there.

Why restricting something that barely exists then? Makes literally no sense to me. It's almost like restricting the sales of air conditioners in Greenland.

There is a Tesla dealership in Brandon that will be grandfathered in and allowed to keep operating.  This bill is a preventative measure to protect a special interest (i.e., auto dealership franchisees.)

[lfromnj]

Why do MS Democrats even care about auto dealerships? Aren't they like one of the most right wing demographics ?

[Torie]

What's to prevent someone from buying the electric car in another state?

I bought my Accura in PA and saved 5K by doing so. I would assume most shop around on an interstate basis. Buying a car from a local franchised dealership is just so yesterday.

In college I gave thought to buying a car in MT to save the sales tax. When it turned out that the car needed to stay in MT, or at least not be in Illinois for 90 days after purchase to make it work (a sales tax is really a use tax), I decided that was a bit much, and gave up on that one.

[Santander]

What's to prevent someone from buying the electric car in another state?

Nobody is stopping anyone from buying an electric car. If they want a Ford or Chevy or Mercedes electric car, they just go to a dealership. If they want to buy a Tesla, they can buy it online or go to the existing Tesla store. (there isn't even a Tesla store in neighboring states other than Tennessee) They don't pay anything extra, they don't have to make any additional effort.

[Vosem]

I wonder what it will take for Elon to realize that he'll never win over Republicans, and that purposefully alienating and antagonizing the only side of the spectrum that had any respect for him and his industry was profoundly stupid. He'll probably never admit it.

No one ever had any respect for Elon except for weird libertarians.

Elon Musk is less famous than you think, but every poll ever conducted shows more Americans have a favorable than unfavorable view of him. Of course, this might have less to do with his personal qualities and more to do with Americans' favorable views of billionaires generally.

This feels like a very stupid regulation, but it doesn't...actually...even restrict electric car sales? (Except in the sense that it restricts all car sales, since the regulation also applies to non-electric cars.) If you read the full text of the article and not just the headline, online electric car sales are not being regulated at all, and in-person dealerships are required to be run by franchisees rather than the company directly. Tesla -- and Toyota and Ford for that matter -- are free to open franchises in MS. This feels very dumb but it isn't an individually noteworthy decision, or worth getting into a giant huff over.

What's to prevent someone from buying the electric car in another state?

Nothing even prevents you from buying the electric car in Mississippi.

[Stranger in a strange land]

This seems to be more about protecting dealerships than anything else.  Protectionism is always bad.

The fact that cars are seemingly the only consumer good sold via this method never made sense to me. Why can't I order a car from Amazon or buy one from Costco or Walmart?