You knew it was coming. After weeks of liberal tantrums over Elon Musk taking over Twitter — tantrums led mostly by left-leaning “journalists” who had convinced themselves they ran the platform — a writer at Axios has come out and accused Musk of being the worst thing of all: a Republican. And why is that? Because he — gasp! — values free speech. Ironic, no, that journalists are now the ones outraged that free speech is being allowed?

Zachary Basu of Axios wrote a piece today called, “The Republicanization of Elon Musk,” in which he clutches his pearls and frets that “Elon Musk’s public musings” about free speech “have cemented an unmistakable new reality: The world’s richest man, and owner of the de facto public square, has become more and more Republican.” No, not that!!!

Basu goes on to bemoan Musk’s “stunning political transformation” from voting in a way Basu deems acceptable — Musk having apparently voted for Obama, Hillary, and Biden — to now actually saying he could support Ron DeSantis if he were to run for president in 2024. To Basu, it seems, this is an unforgivable betrayal to the left, who seem to be convinced that everyone in Big Tech marches in lockstep with their attempts to quash speech they don’t like and interfere in elections.

The best part about Basu’s article is that he, unintentionally, goes on to outline precisely why more Americans should, like Musk, reconsider their political leanings:

• The billionaire insists he is “neither conventionally right nor left” — but he also says the threat to free speech allegedly posed by Democrats has triggered a “battle for the future of civilization” that trumps all other policy issues.
• COVID restrictions, high taxes and regulations in California also spurred an ideological shift right, and a physical move to Texas, now the home of Tesla’s headquarters.
• Musk’s disillusionment with the Democratic Party has only accelerated — or at least, it has become more public — since his acquisition of Twitter.

Basu, like most “journalists” these days, starts with the conclusion that being a Republican is unquestioningly a bad thing. In berating Elon Musk for the crime of even daring to express a conservative thought, however, what Basu actually is doing is confirming that conservatives are the only ones concerned about free speech. Outlets like Axios are so concerned that they no longer have a monopoly on social media platforms that they are hurling what they think is the most damning accusation of all: being a Republican.

Basu ends his piece on a rather laughable note, implying that Musk is sure to run afoul of Republicans over his business dealings with China, concluding:

What we’re watching: One sleeping giant threatens the Musk-GOP symbiosis: The Tesla CEO has massive business interests in China, a regime viewed by Republicans as the No. 1 geopolitical threat facing the U.S.

Oh, now the leftist media is concerned with China? They haven’t seemed all that interested in the uprisings happening over there because doing so would call attention to the fact that they actually support the tyrannical lockdowns and chilling limits on free speech. They root for the bad actors and are doing their darnedest to lump Elon Musk into that category.

It’s a vile way to do journalism, but that’s where we are.