> I've seen first hand how campaign contributions work between the wealthy and politicians.

How funny it is to see people complaining about the "government", when really these days the government is merely the sock puppet of the biggest piles of money (big corpo, the ultra-rich), who use it to buy legislation and policy decisions that further their own interests.

While the dogs keep barking at the rag doll, the real person keeps kicking them in the backside.

Aside from property taxes on the dealerships' land holdings, most states have ad valorem taxes on cars. This is typically paid whether you bought the car in the state or not, often at the time you register the vehicle in a state. This is also, typically, an annual tax. So if I buy a car in FL and register it in GA, I'll essentially pay sales tax twice (once in FL and once at registration in GA, also depends on how much the ad valorem tax is). So GA tax revenue will be consistent whether I buy it from the dealership or from Tesla.

Regarding employees, direct sales will reduce the number of sales people, yes. Or it'll change the nature of the salesman's job. From pusher on a commission to a salaryman. Now, Tesla and other electrics may not need frequent work done by mechanics (even the standard maintenance stuffs), but other cars still would. Just because I bought my Subaru from Subaru proper instead of the local dealership doesn't mean I won't need to take it in for service every 6 (or so) months.

And if electric cars really do have an effect on employment of mechanics and service technicians, then that's the consequence. We can't legislate the cars away to preserve jobs anymore than we can legislate manufacturing robots away to preserve the jobs of the assembly line worker. (That said, a change in employment status of a large segment of the population will have to be dealt with. Either by charity, retraining, welfare or some combination of those and other methods I've not mentioned.)

But how many people buy cars? Dealerships profits / car salesmen's wages come at the expense of car buyers as much as car manufacturers.

Yep. The NPR Planet Money episode said it's typical for car dealers to be responsible for about 20% of a states sales tax revenues. TWENTY PERCENT.

People may not enjoy the car buying process, but many of them will still choose to put up with it if it means keeping their neighbors employed. Because if the neighbor loses their job, they can lose their home to foreclosure, and foreclosed homes reduce the market value of the rest of the houses in the neighborhood... and so on.