More than half of Republicans support the potential use of force to preserve traditional American values and nearly half believe a time will come when “patriotic Americans” will have to take the law into their own hands, according to the results of a George Washington University poll released this week.
The GW Politics Poll, which surveyed more than 1,700 registered voters from June 4 to June 23, also found that Republican trust in the integrity of U.S. elections has plummeted since the 2020 election.
“Support for fundamental principles such as free and fair elections, free speech, and peaceful protest are nearly unanimous among both Democrats and Republicans,” GWU wrote. “Their views on other democratic values, however, differ dramatically. Over half of Republicans (55%) supported the possible use of force to preserve the ‘traditional American way of life,’ compared to 15% of Democrats. When asked if a time will come when ‘patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands,’ 47% of Republicans agreed, as opposed to just 9% of Democrats.”
“Similar to other polls, the GW Politics Poll found that only 20% of Republicans were confident in the 2020 election results compared to the more than 90% confidence among Democrats,” the results continued.
Republicans also remained much more pessimistic about the integrity of elections heading into 2022 than they did in 2020. While 75% of Democrats have confidence in next year’s elections, only 28% of Republicans are now confident about the process, compared to 46% before the 2020 election.
“The survey showed that 82% of Republicans agreed with the statement, ‘It is hard to trust the results of elections when so many people will vote for anyone who offers a handout.’ Only 15% of Democratic voters agreed,” GWU also noted.
Danny Hayes, professor of political science and co-director of the GW Politics Poll, said in a statement: “Most of the state and local officials who run our elections are long-time public servants whose goal is simply to help our democracy operate smoothly. But if we’ve gotten to a place where voters trust the electoral system only when their side wins, then that undermines the idea of non-partisan election administration, which is essential for democracy.”
The GWU poll comes weeks after a recent survey found that a sizable portion of Americans support dissolving the Union.
As The Daily Wire reported:
Two in three Republicans in the South and almost half of Democrats in Pacific states want to secede from the Union, according to a new poll.
Conducted in June by YouGov in conjunction with BrightLineWatch, the survey asked participants in each region of the United States: “Would you support or oppose [your state] seceding from the United States to join a new union with [list of states in new union]?”
[…]
At 37%, the overall percentage of those who want to dissolve the Union was “arrestingly high,” BrightLineWatch explained. Republicans and independents in the South were most favorable to secession, at 66% and 50% respectively. Of Democrats polled, 47% in the Pacific states said they want to break off. Sizable portions of independents in the Heartland and Mountain states also wanted to form their own country.
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