New poll reveals Republicans are authoritarian curious, while Americans are starkly divided on Trump’s 2020 guilt
The Joe Biden presidential campaign is positioning the 2024 election as a referendum on democracy. But a new poll suggests that defending America’s constitutional system of checks and balances is no longer an electoral slam dunk.
A startling 39 percent of Americans, including 74 percent of Republicans, think it’s a decent idea for Donald Trump to act as a dictator for a day to begin his prospective second term, according to a University of Massachusetts Amherst survey released Wednesday.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The UMass Amherst poll posed the following questions to 1,064 respondents: “Donald Trump recently said that if elected, he would be a dictator only on the first day of his second term.” It then asked, “Do you think that this is a good or bad idea for the country?”
Only 44 percent of adults completely rebelled at the notion of giving the former president — who is currently facing 91 felony charges — dictatorial authority, calling it “definitely bad” for America.
“The lone holdouts are conservatives, Republicans, and Trump voters who seemingly would welcome a dictator in the White House, believing such an administration would be a good thing for the nation,” says Nteta.
“As Trump is facing a likely close contest with Biden, it comes as no shock that he has recently attempted to walk back these comments, in hopes of broadening his electoral coalition, but the damage may already be done.”
The UMass Amherst poll also delivered several other eye-popping findings relating to the fallout from the 2020 election — including that 40 percent of the nation believes that Americans convicted of crimes for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol are “probably” or “definitely” deserving of a pardon.
In addition, the poll asked about the nation’s high court, which is likely to have a final say on issues ranging from whether Trump can claim presidential immunity for his acts leading up to Jan. 6 and whether states can boot him off the ballot as an insurrectionist.
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