That was the immediate ask, and it was an important one. But the fundamental message that Sanders is taking to the American people — Democrats and Republicans and independents, progressives and moderates and conservatives — is a broader one. He seeks to rally Americans to make the next turn in our politics, to raise a grassroots outcry against the seizure of not just economic but political power by billionaire oligarchs such as Musk.

The Bloomberg report on Musk’s exponential accumulation of wealth provided the practical underpinning for the senator’s “of the people, by the people, for the people” argument.

“Got that: When you’ve got political power, you can double your wealth in a few weeks’ time,” said Sanders, who explained:

“When we talk about oligarchy, it’s important to understand that we’re not just talking about the incredible wealth of the people on top, we’re not just talking about the struggle of the working class in this country. We are talking about the incredible political power of the oligarchs.“Today, as all of you know, we have a corrupt campaign finance system. And, as a result of Citizens United, billionaires are able to pour unlimited [money]—hundreds of millions of dollars—into super PACs. That’s what happened in this last presidential election. The most extreme case was Musk himself, who put some $270 million into Trump’s campaign [via two super PACs that backed Trump’s candidacy and Republican campaign efforts]. And his reward for that donation is that he is now, arguably, the most powerful person in the government—more powerful than Trump himself.”

Sanders, an independent, made a point of explaining, to loud applause from the crowd, “It is not just Republicans or Musk. Let’s be clear: Democratic billionaires also put huge amounts of money into their party.”

However, the senator focused primarily on Musk as “the clearest example of this campaign finance corruption.”

How so? “I’ll give you an example of just how crazy it is. It’s one thing to be putting money into electing a president of the United States. We just learned that he is now going to get himself involved in a Supreme Court race in the state of Wisconsin.”

Noting reports that Musk-aligned groups were spending $2.6 million on efforts to elect a right-wing candidate to Wisconsin’s high court—and that the billionaire was expected to spend more, perhaps dramatically more, on the race—Sanders illustrated what’s at stake in the Wisconsin contest between Judge Susan Crawford, who is backed by advocates for fair elections, for unions and abortion rights, and Republican former attorney general Brad Schimel, an ally of anti-labor former governor Scott Walker and corporate interests in the state. If Crawford wins, the court will retain a 4–3 progressive majority; if Schimel wins, conservative judicial activists will have the majority.

“Musk, in a Supreme Court race, in a small race in one state, is getting involved,” declared Sanders. “Now, if you can get involved in a Supreme Court race in the state of Wisconsin, where can you not get involved? You can get involved in every governor’s race, every Senate race. That is their intention.”

Why? “These oligarchs are not only happy to have huge amounts of money. They want more. I know, we all know, that addiction in America—drug addiction, alcohol addiction, cigarette addiction, all that stuff, is a big deal. I’ll tell you about the most serious addiction problem we have in this country: That is the uncontrollable greed of this billionaire class.”

The crowd roared its approval for Sanders’s message, as he argued, “They want more wealth. They want more power. And they just cannot stop themselves. So let us be clear: When we take on Trumpism, we are taking oligarchy and we are taking on the tale of two Americas: people on top doing phenomenally well, the working class struggling.”

The fight now, nationally and in states across the country, is about more than candidates and parties. It is, argued Sanders, about fundamentally different visions for America’s future. On one side stands Elon Musk and “a handful of multi-billionaires [who] not only have extraordinary wealth but unprecedented economic, media and political power…”—power bought through their exploitation of “a corrupt campaign finance system.”

On the other side, Sanders said, must stand an American majority that rejects the lies of big money and demands a new people’s politics—an engaged and impassioned voting class made up of “millions of Americans in Vermont, in Iowa, in Nebraska, in every state in this country who come together in a strong grassroots movement and say: ‘No to oligarchy!’ ‘No to authoritarianism!’ ‘No to kleptocracy!’ ‘No to massive cuts to programs that low-income and working Americans desperately need!’ ‘No to tax breaks for the wealthiest people in America!’”