Elon Musk used to be a darling of the left. Then he bought Twitter and turned it into a free speech platform, and the left’s love affair ended overnight. Musk didn’t just stop the censorship of conservatives on one of the biggest social media platforms; he openly endorsed President Trump and went with him to the White House to root out waste and corruption. That’s when the left completely lost it, vandalizing Teslas and attacking dealerships in protest.
But their outrage goes even deeper. Musk has exposed something Democrats never wanted you to notice: Their so-called climate principles crumble the moment partisan hatred takes over. Musk’s unapologetic shift to the right triggered such a meltdown on the left that many liberals aren’t just boycotting Tesla; they’re souring on electric vehicles altogether.
It's true. New research shows the left’s anger at Musk is so intense, it’s actually tanking their interest in EVs across the board. So much for “saving the planet.” When push comes to shove, their climate crusade gets tossed aside the moment it clashes with their politics.
“The popularity of Tesla among liberal-minded Americans has plummeted since Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and the world’s richest person, allied himself with Donald Trump and helped propel the president to election victory last year,” The Guardian reports.
While liberals reported mostly positive intentions around buying an electric car in August 2023, their overall support for EVs eroded in the wake of a collapse in their opinion of Teslas, according to the new study, which polled Americans on an array of environmental actions.
By the latest poll, taken in March as Musk was gutting the federal workforce in his role as Trump’s top adviser after delivering what appeared to be a Nazi salute, the intention to buy any EV among liberals slipped into negative territory.
“The suspicion is that Elon Musk became so synonymous with EVs in the US that perceptions of him affected the entire class of vehicles,” Alexandra Flores, a psychologist at Williams College and lead author of the study, told the paper.
ICYMI: Here's How The Left Helped Me Buy A Tesla
It’s truly astonishing to watch Democrats twist themselves in knots over Musk’s politics. Remember, this is a man they once held up as an eco-savior. But the second Musk broke ranks and showed even a hint of independent thinking, they rushed to denounce him — and, by extension, the movement he helped popularize. These are the same people who insisted for over a decade that “the science is settled,” and driving an EV was morally equivalent to planting trees and hugging polar bears. Now, suddenly, the paper straw-loving liberals are ditching EVs for gas guzzlers because politics, not emissions, is what really counts in their world.
The truth is, Democrats were only on board with electric vehicles when it served to boost their status and advance their agenda. For them, driving an EV was never about saving the planet; it was about virtue signaling their climate activism to friends at potlucks and wine bars. But the moment owning an EV stopped making them feel special, their enthusiasm dried up. It was never about decarbonizing the economy or fighting “climate change.” It was always about appearances. Their shallow, performative environmentalism shows just how hollow and unserious the entire agenda really is.
The left’s meltdown over Musk proves their “climate crusade” was just political theater from the start. Only PJ Media dares to expose how quickly they tossed aside environmentalism when it became inconvenient. Become a PJ Media VIP for exclusive content, ad-free browsing, and more. Use promo code FIGHT for 60% off. The truth can’t wait. Don’t let them rewrite the narrative. Join today and keep conservative journalism strong!
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