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- A new poll offers an alarming picture of the GOP’s beliefs about democracy.
- Nearly half of Republicans said there might be a time when they should take justice into their own hands.
- A majority of Republicans approved of the potential use of force to defend “traditional” America.
Less than a year after pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, nearly half of Republican voters (47%) say “a time will come when American patriots will have to do justice themselves, “according to a new national poll. by the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs.
Only about 29% of Americans agreed with this statement at some level, according to the poll, including only 9% of Democrats. And 49% said they disagree or strongly disagree.
The poll also found that a majority of Republicans (55%) say “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so quickly that we may have to use force to save it.” About 15% of Democrats agreed with this statement, but more Americans disagreed (46%) than agreed (34%).
More Republicans (27%) than Democrats (18%) said that “strong leaders sometimes have to bend the rules to get things done.”
The poll also found extremely low levels of confidence among Republicans in the election – 82% said it was “difficult to trust the election results when so many people will vote for anyone who offers a document.” . Only 15% of Democrats were on the same page.
Echoing other recent polls on the 2020 election, the survey found that only 20% of Republicans were confident in the 2020 election results, compared to over 90% of Democrats.
The survey of 1,753 registered US voters was conducted by YouGov from June 4 to 23.
During the Trump era, democracy experts have repeatedly expressed concerns about the GOP’s slide towards authoritarianism. Democracy scholars have continued to sound the alarm bells as GOP-led legislatures in states across the country push for restrictive election laws, using justifications similar to President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of mass election fraud after rightly losing the 2020 election. In this sense, a former Trump administration official recently called the Republican Party the main threat to US national security.
More than a quarter of Americans qualify as having authoritarian right-wing political beliefs, according to a Morning Consult poll released in late June.
Although Trump has sparked an insurgency on Capitol Hill and is the only commander-in-chief in history to be impeached twice, he continues to be the leader of the Republican Party. GOP leaders in Congress have also denounced a House investigation into the January 6 insurgency.
In a hearing held Tuesday by the House select committee investigating the inquiry, four police officers testified about the violence they were subjected to by Trump supporters on Capitol Hill. One officer called the insurgencies “terrorists”, and another said the riot on Capitol Hill amounted to an “attempted coup”.
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