The Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institute dropped their “14th Annual American Values survey” survey on Wednesday and this year’s joint titled “Threats to American Democracy Ahead of an Unprecedented Presidential Election,” has all the fun and dark quantifications of a populace riven with the insanity wrought by the deeply malevolence of the MAGA GOP information sphere. Most salient of these is the sentiment “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country” finding agreement among 23 percent of respondents overall – the first time ever that it’s gotten above 20 percent. By affiliation, 33 percent of GOP voters agree (shocker) compared to 22 percent of independents and 13 percent of Dems.
Broken down by the clearer metric of 2020 election trutherism, the split comes to 46 percent of those who think the election was stolen from Trump vs 13 percent of those who live in reality saying violence is the answer. We guess you might call that the “Antifa voter” demographic.
Other sundry findings: 23 percent of respondents believe the QAnon prophecy that “a storm is coming that will sweep away elites in power,” up from 14 percent in 2021. 48 percent overall and 72 percent of Republican voters think “society as a whole has become too soft and feminine.” The same share of GOP voters think “the growing number of newcomers from other countries” represent a threat to “traditional American customs and values,” vs 44 percent overall. 57 percent of respondents agree that Trump getting reelected in 2024 poses a threat to American democracy.
The survey findings are massive and we’re just barely scratching the surface here, so give it a read.