The new talking point from Democrats is that those school closures, lockdowns, mandates…didn’t really happen. At least they weren’t nearly as comprehensive and long-lasting as those mean Republicans are saying.

Clearly the worm has turned if Democrats in competitive races are running away from their own policies.

Well, I have a reminder for them. Not only did they pound the “deplorables” into the ground with mandates, censorship, school closures lasting up to a year, and economic sanctions for failing to comply–vast numbers of Democrats wanted the COVID fascists to do even more. The madness was real, the harm extensive, and the real threat to our democracy was laid bare by oppressive Democrat policies.

Every time you hear a Democrat politician bumble around denying the extremism of the Left on COVID, think about a poll taken just 9 months back–in January of this year to be precise.

The Heartland Institute commissioned a poll from Rasmussen Reports on attitudes regarding COVID mitigation policies, and the results were both startling and terrifying. Confirming what we all suspected at the time, Democrats in large numbers care little about freedom and even less about their fellow citizens who disagree with them. I remember reading the poll at the time and being appalled, and I thought about it again as candidates such as Gretchen Whitmer have begun doing an about face on COVID mitigations.

Here are some findings from that poll. Once you are done you will question what kind of country many Democrats want to live in:

– Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democratic voters would favor a government policy requiring that citizens remain confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies, if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a proposal is opposed by 61% of all likely voters, including 79% of Republicans and 71% of unaffiliated voters.

– Nearly half (48%) of Democratic voters think federal and state governments should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications. Only 27% of all voters – including just 14% of Republicans and 18% of unaffiliated voters – favor criminal punishment of vaccine critics.

– Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a policy would be opposed by a strong majority (71%) of all voters, with 78% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters saying they would Strongly Oppose putting the unvaccinated in “designated facilities.”

– While about two-thirds (66%) of likely voters would be against governments using digital devices to track unvaccinated people to ensure that they are quarantined or socially distancing from others, 47% of Democrats favor a government tracking program for those who won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine.

How far are Democrats willing to go in punishing the unvaccinated? Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Democratic voters would support temporarily removing parents’ custody of their children if parents refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s much more than twice the level of support in the rest of the electorate – seven percent (7%) of Republicans and 11% of unaffiliated voters – for such a policy.

Unsurprisingly, the people most likely to support harsh punishments were strong Biden supporters.

Remember, this is not April of 2020, when we knew little about COVID and people were scared to death (by the CDC) that we were facing the return of the Black Death. This is from earlier this year.

In 2022 59% of Democratic voters would favor a government policy requiring that citizens remain confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies, if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. This is after it became clear that the only possible “victim” of not getting vaccinated would be the person choosing not to get vaccinated. The vaccine neither prevents catching the disease nor slows its spread, so this is purely punitive.

Half of Democrats believed that the government should have been able to fine or imprison people for saying something unapproved about the vaccine. Many ideas that would have landed you in jail in January, should this have been implemented, are now accepted facts. Imprisoning people for disagreeing with the government was the preferred policy for half of all Democrats.

45% of Democrats supported concentration camps for vaccine refuseniks. Concentration camps!  47% supported electronic monitoring of refuseniks.

I suppose I should take comfort that only 29% of Democrats would have removed children from the homes of the unvaccinated, so there is a limit.

The Democrat Party is not in and of itself a fascist party, but it has become the party of fascists. When half your supporters want to imprison people for dissent, construct concentration camps, and electronically monitor their fellow citizens for making a personal health care decision something is truly, deeply wrong.

So next time you hear a Democrat politician dancing around about how Democrats are for freedom, or that their COVID policies weren’t too strict really, remember how insane the Democrat Party went over this issue.

Who is the real threat to democracy. These numbers tell the tale.

UPDATE: Somehow I got Whitmer’s first name wrong. Corrected.