Anti-democratic warning signs are blinking in current polling
If Donald Trump loses the election this November, why would he not once again try to subvert that loss?
This is not a baseless question, certainly. Both Trump’s critics and his supporters agree that Trump tried to prevent Joe Biden from taking office; they just disagree on the validity of that effort. Most Republicans — 62 percent in a December Washington Post-University of Maryland poll — believe there is solid evidence that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud, which is false. This belief undergirds the idea that Trump’s post-2020-election efforts were rooted in his fighting against an illegal effort to influence the presidency rather than being such an illegal effort.
That view still holds. The Pew Research Center published data Wednesday showing that about half of Republicans (and independents who lean Republican) think Trump did nothing wrong in trying to overturn his 2020 loss, with a fifth indicating they were “not sure” if he did anything wrong. That’s more than two-thirds of the party, claiming innocence or uncertainty. Americans overall (and Democrats/Democratic leaners overwhelmingly) think that Trump did something wrong or broke the law.
That Trump’s post-2020 actions are not seen by many in his base as a subversion of democracy is reflected in another question asked by Pew. Respondents were presented with a number of characteristics that might apply to Biden or Trump and asked how confident they were that the characteristics applied to the candidates.
https://wapo.st/3wjVtl4
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