According to a new poll, a sizable majority of Americans, on both sides of the political spectrum, support eliminating democracy and using violence against political opponents, among other authoritarian methods.
According to a University of Virginia Center for Politics poll conducted in October, 31% of Donald Trump supporters and 24% of President Joe Biden supporters believe that democracy is “no longer viable” and that an alternate system should be attempted.
41% of Biden supporters and 38% of Trump supporters said that using violence to prevent political opponents from achieving their objectives was appropriate.
Elections should be suspended in times of crisis, according to 30% of Trump supporters and 25% of Biden supporters.
Nearly 50% of Biden backers, 47% of Trump backers, and 35% of Biden backers agreed that the government should censor speech that is “considered discriminatory or offensive.”
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points and was conducted among 2,008 registered voters between August 25 and September 11.
The Pew Research Center reports that the results, which indicate a desire for an authoritarian crackdown, come at a time when public confidence in the government is at a nearly all-time low.
Only 16% of Americans indicated they trusted the government to act morally at least most of the time in a 2023 poll.
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