Due process for me, not for thee. 

This story seems to put to rest the Democrats' commitment to due process. A Heartland Institute/Rasmussen Reports poll has found that 7 out of 10 Democrats would like to see a law passed that would put Elon Musk in jail. 

FULL STORY:https://t.co/EqwfwI5MAs

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) May 8, 2025

You read that right. They don't think that Elon should go to jail if he broke a law. They want a law passed that would put him in jail. 

Thank God for the Constitution's provision forbidding Bills of Attainder!

For those of you who have forgotten their civics lessons--or the younger ones of you who never were blessed to have a decent civics class--a Bill of Attainder is a legislative act that declares somebody guilty of a crime (usually vaguely defined) and allows them to be punished without trial. It is a purely political prosecution, and an even more extreme example of what the Democrats tried to do to Trump, which at least had the fig leaf of inventing crimes and having a trial. 

Democrats like the idea, obviously. 

Since he agreed to lead President Donald Trump’s effort to reduce government waste, Elon Musk has become so hated by liberals that they would overwhelmingly favor a law to put the high-tech billionaire behind bars.

A new telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute finds that 54% of Likely Voters would support a hypothetical law that would imprison Musk for his role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), including 39% who would Strongly Support such a law. Thirty-six percent (36%) oppose a law that would send Musk to prison, including 26% who Strongly Oppose it, while 10% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Seventy-one percent (71%) of Democrats would favor a hypothetical law to put Musk behind bars, as would 80% of self-identified liberal voters. Fifty-four percent (54%) of Republicans and 57% of conservative voters. would oppose such a law. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 52% would support a law to imprison Musk for his role in DOGE, 34% would oppose it and 17% are not sure.

I'm sorry, but WAT? 

Four out of 10 Americans strongly support tossing Elon Musk in jail because he recommended firing some bureaucrats? Are Democrats that devoted to expanding government?

Yes. And I think it has nothing to do with money; it is about how Musk has emasculated the left. His real sin is not cutting government, but cutting the left off from its source of money and power. 

“The fact that a majority of Democratic voters would support imprisoning Elon Musk for trying to make government more efficient is a shocking indictment of the modern left, which has become increasingly more tyrannical in recent years,” said Justin Haskins, senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and the poll’s primary author. We’ve reached a point where many Americans would rather unjustly punish innovation than fix the broken systems Musk was trying to reform.”

Justin is right. This tyrannical impulse has come to dominate the left-leaning parties over the past couple of decades. 

The far left has always been tyrannical because its agenda is utopian, and utopian visions require imposing uniformity of ideas and behavior. But generally speaking, parties like the Democrats have been more driven by mundane technocracy and spreading the money around rather than seizing control of every thought and action. They were interested in running things just well enough so that they could skim off the top and maintain power. 

Typical politics, in other words. Think of Richard Daley, the boss of Chicago's political machine, and compare him to Brandon Johnson. Daley wanted to be basically a "legit" mob boss; Johnson wants to tear everything down and replace it with a Brave New World of communism. 

No longer. The Democratic Party has become a Maoist revolutionary party, and while the American system of government makes Maoism extraordinarily difficult to impose from above, the desire for a cultural revolution-style of politics is the motivating force for about 50-60% of the Democrats, and about 80% of its base. 

It's the "off with their heads" faction. Or, in America, "throw them in jail." We saw it in the lawfare against Trump, which was transparently a witch hunt, and we see the same thing here. 

"I don't like them, so throw them in jail."

So much for "norms."