> he's the guy who started companies aiming to make satellite internet that doesn't suck

He started SpaceX because he wanted human missions to mars, he's as "progressive" as every American was in the 70s.

> popularize electric cars when every manufacturer had given up on them

Eh... "The company was incorporated as Tesla Motors, Inc. on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning."