5mo ago

Polls keep showing Americans want Elon Musk and DOGE out of government

www.motherjones.com

Polls Keep Showing Americans Want Elon Musk and DOGE Out of Government

Summary

Multiple polls show that a significant portion of Americans oppose Elon Musk’s influence in government, particularly through DOGE.

A CBS/YouGov poll found that nearly half of respondents want Musk to have little or no influence, with opinions split along party lines.

Other polls from The Economist, Quinnipiac, and advocacy groups also reveal broad concerns over Musk’s power and lack of oversight.

Meanwhile, the White House continues to defend Musk and selectively highlight poll results that support Trump’s administration while ignoring criticism.

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A CBS/YouGov poll found that nearly half of respondents want Musk to have little or no influence, with opinions split along party lines.
"Nearly half"
"opinions split along party lines"
So the Republicans are still bootlicking fascism. Nothing has changed. There's no mass outcry from people who just now realized it.
It's the same 'nearly half' of the country that's sane.
- Even if there was, it wouldn't stop what's happening. The current administration gives no fucks about public opinion. If they did they wouldn't have repeatedly lied in their campaign nor would they be following the largely unpopular Project 2025
  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-project-2025-broadly-known-severely-unpopular-voters-rcna172660
  What we can do about it is start forming mutual aid networks and unions. These will help us form a cohesive front against the fast forming authoritarian government that's being installed.
  If anyone wants resources to learn more about this you can find a rough draft here.
  https://lemmy.world/comment/14977955
  
  The only thing thats stopping Musk at this point is an insane leftist with too many drones and etch-a-sketches laying around.
  
  If they didnt care about public opinion, they wouldn't have lied.
  If they didn't care about public opinion, they wouldn't be pressuring media to squash knowledge of it so hard.
- Nearly half is closer than what the presidential elections were... So, progress?
  
  You have found the tinfoil lining in this cloud. You're right though, progress is progress.
Unless someone is going to enforce consequences on them they don't care if 100% of the population disagree with them.
Trump can't legally get elected again and Musk wasn't elected at all, why the fuck would they care what the public thinks?
- Trump can't legally get elected again
  Trump can't legally sexually assault women, but that still happened. We'll see how this plays out.
  
  Either way, public opinion no longer matters to him unless there are actual consequences attached.
  
  drumpf will probably illegally get elected again.
- Hah! Elections you think we'll be getting more of those at this rate?
  
  So again, no reason for them to care if they are unpopular.
  
  That does also support his point entirely. So. Yes. That's correct.
- Moving against the majority and common sense pays its toll on the long run...
  
  "Surely this time there will be consequences for Trump, unlike all those other times we thought there would surely be consequences for Trump. This time though, this time all those people who haven't been holding Trump accountable will hold Trump accountable."
A CBS/YouGov poll found that nearly half of respondents want Musk to have little or no influence, with opinions split along party lines.
So literally what any of us would have predicted as the outcome to this poll, and it doesn't matter anyhow, because Trump is fully in "whatever, I'll do what I want" mode.
Musk’s DOGE crusade is the perfect allegory for late-stage oligarchy: a billionaire playing cabinet minister while polls scream 46% want him gone. The partisan split here is theater – Republicans cheering their own disenfranchisement through regulatory capture, Democrats clutching pearls they helped string.
That White House press flacks can’t confirm his security clearance while he raids Treasury datasets? Peak technofeudalism. They’re not even pretending anymore – just raw power consolidation masked as "efficiency."
Meanwhile, the Education Department "doesn’t exist" but somehow gets staffed by meme lords with racist post histories. This isn’t governance; it’s a hostile takeover using government letterhead.
- Yeah it's a coup. There's no getting around that this isn't the government.
Then why did they vote for or refuse to vote against him?
- Nobody voted for Elon.
  
  It was clear he was part of Trump's plan so yeah, plenty of people voted for him.
  That's like saying no one voted for migrant deportations because what they voted for was a person, not their program, well no, if something is part of their program then that's something you're voting for.
- Read the article. The people who voted for Trump still think Musk is fine.
  
  That still leaves those who didn't vote against it being idiots 🤷
- Because there are propaganda networks out there and these have tried to convince their users and viewers that Elon is doing the right thing.
  We can blame our judicial and legislative branches for allowing propaganda networks to be funded by oligarchs. These people too were being bankrolled by the ultra wealthy.
- People be dumb. I know I am.
Yes but were those polls taken on Twitter?! That's the only valid poll to Elon.
- Those aren't even valid. Remember the one where he asked if he should quit being CEO and people said yes by a vast majority?
  
  LOL I forgot about that, what a dork.
  
  Well, now he has driven most sane people out of the platform so if he repeats the poll he will get the result he wants!
I’ll file this in the not helpful “hopium” or copium folder of discourse that is actually harmful to enacting change. It leads you to believe the tides are shifting in your favor and all will be ok when that’s actually not the case.
- "Yeah but when we write stuff you desperately want to be true you click on it soooo....." - the media, probably
I live in a solidly conservative area and I heard a surprising but also encouraging conversation this morning at the doctor's office.
When I walked in, there were a handful of folks in the waiting area and they were talking supportively of JD Vance, so presumably conservative voters. It was off putting for me and I was immediately a bit irritated that I can't even go to the doctor without having to listen to this bullshit.
But as the conversation continued, they actually started talking about how super wealthy people worth hundreds of millions aren't paying their fair share of taxes, how they're ruining towns and making middle class people pay for it, and things like that. Specifically they were talking about some of the environmental damage done to waterways by rich people (they mentioned someone specific but it wasn't a name I am familiar with and I don't recall what it was) and how the clean-up is being paid for by middle class tax payers.
So, while we might all disagree substantially on a lot of topics, I think a disdain for super wealthy / elites not paying their fair share is some common ground to build on.
- That is pretty common when you hear conservatives talk. You often agree about the issues, but then you suddenly hear crazy conspiracy theories about why everything is the fault of immigrants, jews, trans people or whatever.
  When conservatives talk about the rich and powerful being bad, its often about some "globalists", "George Soros", "World Economic Forum", "Liberals", ... than just the system being bad.
  That is the reason why the leftist critique should always focus on the system, not specific people or groups.
- But as the conversation continued, they actually started talking about how super wealthy people worth hundreds of millions aren’t paying their fair share of taxes, how they’re ruining towns and making middle class people pay for it, and things like that. Specifically they were talking about some of the environmental damage done to waterways by rich people (they mentioned someone specific but it wasn’t a name I am familiar with and I don’t recall what it was) and how the clean-up is being paid for by middle class tax payers.
  I've also heard conservatives complain about Trump's plans in Gaza because "my taxes are going to give free condos to them! 😡" while also saying the government military spending is something they support without understanding how USAID is part of the MIC they seem to claim to support. Some seem to think spending money on bombing others is how you make America safe instead of making it more dangerous....
You're in for 4 awesome years of Musk in the gov, champs. But hey, you voted for it, so I don't understand why are you now showing disagreement with what they told you they would do.
- it would seem about 60-70% of americans never have any idea what's really going on around here. you run into enough people who say shit like "i voted for trump but i'm going to vote against project 2025" that it's just astounding. so now probably 10-20% of us are gearing up for a fight for survival while 25-35% of the populace have been geared up to be the modern day brownshirts carrying out the oncoming genocide. the remaining 45-65% are just rolling along like this is all perfectly acceptable normal politics. they're acting like this is just the cost of doing business and it's not their place to do or say anything.
  they're who's really responsible in all this. fuckers.
  
  One comment I remember from right before the election was a person saying how their cashier said “well, anybody but Biden right?” and they were like “Biden…Biden isn’t running.”
  I don’t get it. I do not understand how people could be so blind to politics that they wouldn’t even know who’s running, but then I talk to real people and it’s like “oh.”
- you voted for it
  No.
  
  I’m 100% certain that the “you” is directed at the republican voters. If you were one of them, then maybe the whole “Musk is going to be in charge of a new department and do all this crazy shit” somehow slipped by you, but it was definitely said very loudly.
Yeah great, but the fucking damage is done and who knows what that neo-Nazi lunatic will do with the information. I hope the NSA, CIA and FBI nab his worthless ass.
I also want him of Earth for what it's worth. Let him pack up a Space X rocket and head to Mars. Start that colony he said we'd absolutely would have by now, because it's so easy (according to him). He's be the first person in Mars!
Another pointless article.
Polls are crap. Who answers those calls? The same damn people over and over.
The results are " strong feelings" or " nearly 50%" !?!?
I usually ignore motherj articles anyway.... Guess I can keep doing that
It is what it is at this point, and as usual, Democrats will completely mis-read the room and rant about shit that won't win them the midterms. The best we can hope for is TheIdiot falling flat on his face.
Yet more evidence shows Elon Musk and his cronies at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are unpopular with many Americans.
Nearly half of people who responded to a new CBS/YouGov poll out today said they want Musk to have less influence over government spending and operations, including nearly a third who think they should have none at all. The poll found that 18 percent of respondents said that Musk and his DOGE acolytes should have “not much” influence on government operations and spending, while 31 percent said they should have none at all. Predictably, the support differed along partisan lines: Nearly three-quarters of Republicans surveyed said Musk and DOGE should have “a lot” or “some” influence, whereas more than two-thirds of Democrats said they should have “not much” or “none.”
They're really reaching with that headline. It's in the territory between clickbait and positively misleading.
I love these polls that report on obvious conclusions that don't require polling.
Like yeah, no shit. The problem is the people holding the reins of power couldn't give two shits what the American public wants or thinks.
This is the point when asking is useless. There needs to be telling. The purest form of authority isn't going to wield itself.
when we vote to deport grandma, lose your farm and keep prices high
Like they give a shit about polls now that they’re untouchable.
Probably shouldn’t have NOT VOTED.
I also want to be a ethical billionaire but we don't get wishes, only votes and America wasted it in 2024 so good luck there guys.
Too bad we don't have a government responsive to what people want.
Should have showed it at the polls lmao
That's nice. These monsters don't care about and are not asking for approval from anyone now.
They are going to use the unitary executive theory to restore "liberty" - as someone like Bannon sees that word to mean.
Be sure to thank everyone that didn't vote against donvict and fElon having all this power.
I'd be totally satisfied if they went completely offworld
Let's make government smaller!
/Proceeds to expand government, including unelected officials
Good for Americans.

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