Elon Musk has done many things that should have earned him praise from both the left and right: He helped revolutionize electric cars, pushed the limits of space exploration, and championed free speech for all people, not just the ideological factions with whom he agrees. But after briefly serving in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a bold attempt to eliminate waste and rein in the bloated federal bureaucracy—Musk has now become Public Enemy No. 1 for the modern left.
A stunning new poll conducted by The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports reveals just how far Democrats are willing to go to silence those who dare to challenge the administrative state in Washington, D.C. An astonishing 71 percent of likely Democratic voters say they would support a hypothetical law that would imprison Elon Musk for his role in DOGE.
Yes, you read that correctly. Seven in ten likely Democratic voters want to imprison Musk for trying to make government more efficient.
This isn’t satire. This is the modern Democratic Party, where liberalism has evolved into authoritarianism dressed in the clothes of compassion and equity.
It Gets Worse
Incredibly, the numbers are even worse for those who identify as “liberal” in the survey. This includes ideological liberals in all political parties, not just the Democratic Party. Eighty percent of liberals say they want to jail a private citizen for working in a government department whose sole mission was to cut waste.
That’s not all. In a separate question included in the survey, respondents were asked if they would support a law to keep Elon from serving in government again, in any capacity. This, of course, would be an overt violation of constitutional rights. However, that didn’t stop nearly 70 percent of Democrats from supporting the proposal.
The poll also found that 80 percent of Democrats have either a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of Musk. That might not be surprising given the coordinated media campaign against him. Since taking over X (formerly Twitter) and allowing dissenting voices back onto the platform, Musk has been relentlessly demonized by the same people who once championed him as a climate hero.
Why? Because Elon Musk broke ranks. He was supposed to be one of them. He was supposed to walk in lockstep against conservatives at all times. When he chose a different path, one based on completely legitimate concerns about the future of the country, he committed a sin that some on the radical left simply cannot forgive.
Despite holding many other left-leaning and moderate ideological views, Musk dedicated himself to the promotion of free speech. He questioned government overreach. And, worst of all, he was even willing to serve under a Republican president.
For many progressives and socialists, there’s only one thing that you can do with a “dangerous” nonconformist like that: you send him straight to jail.
A Troubling Sign
This poll isn’t just about Elon Musk. It’s about a growing and deeply troubling trend: criminalizing political opposition. When nearly three-fourths of Democratic voters support jailing someone for participating in an effort to streamline federal agencies, we’ve crossed a dangerous line. This is the stuff of banana republics, not constitutional republics.
What this poll tells us is that America is not just divided over policy. We are divided over fundamental values.
In a well-functioning democratic republic, disagreement is encouraged. At the very least, it’s tolerated. But the far left’s increasingly authoritarian-minded movement seeks to eliminate disagreement entirely. If they can’t defeat you at the ballot box, some of them will try to destroy your life, your business, or even put you in prison.
This is a chilling reminder of how far some on the left are now willing to go. And if they’re willing to jail Elon Musk for doing his job, what do you think they’ll do to the rest of us?
Justin Haskins is a New York Times bestselling author, president of Our Republic, and a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute.