A large portion of Americans on both sides of the aisle favor getting rid of democracy and imposing violence on their political opponents, among other authoritarian measures, according to a new poll.
Thirty-one
percent of Donald Trump supporters and 24% of President Joe Biden supporters
said democracy is “no longer viable” and an alternative system should be tried,
according to an October poll from the University of Virginia’s Center for
Politics.
The poll
surveyed 2,008 registered voters from Aug. 25 to Sept. 11 and has a margin of
error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
Other
key findings:
-When
asked whether it is acceptable to employ violence to stop political opponents
from attaining their goals, 41% of Biden supporters and 38% of Trump supporters
said yes.
-30% of
Trump supporters and 25% of Biden supporters said elections should be suspended
in times of crisis.
-41% of
Trump supporters and 30% of Biden supporters said they favor either
conservative or liberal states seceding from the union.
-Nearly
half of Biden supporters, 47%, and 35% of Trump supporters said the government
should restrict the expression of views “considered discriminatory or
offensive.” The polling comes as Trump, the leading contender for the GOP
nomination, continues to claim without evidence that the 2020 election was
rigged against him.
The
polling comes as Trump, the leading contender for the GOP nomination, continues
to claim without evidence that the 2020 election was rigged against him. The
results, which signal a desire for an authoritarian crackdown, come at a time
when public trust in government is at a near-record low, according to the Pew
Research Center. In a 2023 poll, only 16% of Americans said they trusted the
government to do what is right at least most of the time.
The poll
reveals “really troubling findings about democracy and the potential for
violence,” Rick Hasen, the director of UCLA’s Safeguarding Democracy Project,
said on X.
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