For years, the Democratic Party has attempted to portray itself as a stalwart defender of democracy, due process, and equality under the law. Its leaders warn constantly of rising authoritarianism, casting themselves as a bulwark against supposed fascism and tyranny. But the most insidious kind of authoritarianism is the kind that cloaks itself in democratic language — one that, for instance, jails political dissidents while claiming to protect the Constitution and demands ideological conformity in the name of tolerance.
A new national poll conducted by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports reveals just how far this absurd hypocrisy has gone. A stunning 71% of Democrats say they would support a law that would imprison Elon Musk for his role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, as well as a full 80% of self-identified “liberals.”
To be clear, the survey question made no reference to criminal conduct or illegal activity by Musk. There was no claim of Musk violating federal law, defrauding taxpayers, or participating in abuse of power. Nor is there evidence of Musk engaging in such activity.
Rather, an overwhelming majority of the American Left wants to toss Musk in prison and throw away the key simply because he tried — without much success, unfortunately — to downsize the federal bureaucracy. Voters were specifically asked whether they would “support a hypothetical law that would imprison Elon Musk for his role in DOGE” with no other qualifiers. And nearly three in every four Democrats said yes.
The same poll found that 68% of Democrats believe Musk should be banned from ever serving in government again, not because of any ethical lapse or policy failure but simply because he served in the wrong administration, tried to make government smaller, and challenged entrenched interests.
These are not just the views of left-wing agitators or antifa adherents. This is now the mainstream view of the Democratic Party. The desire to jail political dissidents is shared by the vast majority of the party’s base and self-identified liberals — people who vote in primaries, shape policy priorities, and dominate institutional power centers.
Yet, Democrats’ deeply concerning impulse to imprison Musk likely has less to do with his brief tenure advising the Trump administration than with what he has come to represent. To many on the Left, Musk has become a traitor to their values and a threat to their cultural and political dominance. He was once a progressive icon. He was celebrated for his climate change advocacy, including his work on electric vehicles and renewable energy, as well as his support for redistributive policies such as a universal basic income.
But that admiration evaporated when Musk stepped out of line. His takeover of Twitter, now X, and decision to reopen the platform to dissenting views broke the Left’s digital blockade, disrupting its long-standing control over what narratives were allowed to circulate online. He challenged progressive orthodoxy on censorship, exposed the fascistic public-private partnership between federal agencies and social media companies, and gave a platform to voices that had been deliberately marginalized.
To many Democrats, this was an unforgivable betrayal. Now they want vengeance.
But the real significance of this poll isn’t about Musk at all. The results confirm what has become obvious: The Democratic Party has increasingly abandoned liberal norms and any semblance of limiting principles in its pursuit of power and control.
This is the same political movement that insists it stands for due process, equal justice, tolerance, and fidelity to the values enshrined in the Constitution. These are worthy principles that everyone should seek to uphold. But as this poll makes clear, most Democrats only defend them when it’s politically convenient or benefits their side.
Democrats say they fear fascism, yet jailing political dissidents and enforcing ideological conformity are defining characteristics of fascist regimes. They claim to uphold liberal democracy, but true liberalism, in the classical sense, demands tolerance of dissent, procedural fairness, and the rule of law applied equally to all.
Those ideals are nowhere to be found in the survey’s responses. In a free society, you don’t call for a technocrat to receive prison time because he proposed spending cuts, nor do you ban citizens from public office because they disagree with you.
Authoritarianism typically doesn’t arrive with tanks in the streets. It creeps in slowly and steadily grows over time through the abandonment of principle, the erosion of tolerance, and the celebration of abuses of power against those who don’t toe the party line.
ELON’S EXIT: LESSONS IN GOVERNMENT-CUTTING AS MUSK PREPARES TO STEP BACK
When an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters are willing to jail a political opponent without any claim of criminal wrongdoing, the danger to democracy is no longer hypothetical. It is already here.
Democrats say they are fighting fascism. They might want to look in the mirror to find it.
Jack McPherrin is a research fellow for the Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center at the Heartland Institute.