> it seems to me that U.S. public sentiment has been shifting against the lockdowns recently - and not just among some fringe protester groups, but among all kinds of demographically and ideologically different groups

Nope, ending the lockdowns is not a popular movement.

More than twice as many people believe they don't go far enough as believe they go too far.[1]

"Only 12% of Americans say the measures where they live go too far. About twice as many people, 26%, believe the limits don’t go far enough. The majority of Americans — 61% — feel the steps taken by government officials to prevent infections of COVID-19 in their area are about right."

[1] https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/22/outbreak-poll-most-am...

With the current disaster that many states have for an unemployment system, dwindling funds and ramping job loss I think that is going to shift. People are actively running out of money, they are waiting in food lines for hours by the hundreds. The federal government has indicated it has no inclination to resolve this. People need money to eat. I think that sentiment is going to change soon. We should have implemented a massive stay at home order across the nation in early March and funded it with a UBI for 2 - 3 months and the situation would have been resolved. Now its too late and people are truly suffering. The only thing that is going to resolve that suffering is income.

Fate is a cruel mistress. Republicans are facing a decision between implementing leftist basic income policies or being decimated at the polls. They're trying to fight it by astroturfing resistance to wildly popular public health measures, but it's a bad look for them to be advocating the thing they smeared universal health care for in 2008: death panels.

This comment is going to get very down voted (mine not yours). The thing though, they don't care about hypocrisy. The democrats are made up of a wide coalition and are generally advocating for an increase in equality, wider access to voting, more equitable income distribution. Essentially they are all on some scale of democratic socialistic polices geared towards helping as many people as possible. Republicans are united in moving more wealth and power to the very top and owning the libs.

The polls do seem to show that the lockdowns are popular, but I feel like I have detected a real shifting of sentiment on social media recently. I think that my sample does reflect something about reality since I even have noticed the shift on places that just a few weeks ago were staunchly pro-lockdown.

I do not know how to reconcile my experience with the polls, though.

Twitter is not reality. Polling is pretty clear that ending lockdowns is quite unpopular.

> it seems to me that U.S. public sentiment has been shifting against the lockdowns recently - and not just among some fringe protester groups, but among all kinds of demographically and ideologically different groups

Unfortunately, I've noticed the same thing.

> From what I can tell based on both personal and online interactions, it seems to me that U.S. public sentiment has been shifting against the lockdowns recently

People who talk like this should never be trusted.

Also, if there should be any trouble at all getting a dirt cheap bailout loan from the government, a solid history of holding the party line will be a guarantee for success. I don't know if Musk deliberately plays this strategy, but it would certainly be on my mind if I were in his shoes. I'm not at all shameless enough to do that kind of thing, thankfully.

If Tesla's able to survive through the current macroeconomic slowdown, this situation plays strongly to their advantage. They'll keep being capital constrained for another decade or so. Their ambition is to build 20 million cars per year. Need ten more factories to do that.

Zero interest bailout loans would be a godsend, as long as they can stay profitable and still have a healthy customer base. They're a growth company still. Nowhere near the ceiling of their potential market.

Although it's still a super uncertain and scary situation, it's much better place to be than being an established, no-growth automaker with thin margins falling to zero on a 10% sales decline.