Poll: Democracy in doubt
Americans brace for violence at inauguration
A USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll found that 70% of the Americans surveyed believe the nation’s democracy has been weakened in the last four years.
Most Americans are braced for violence at President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll finds, amid an overwhelming consensus that the nation’s democracy has been weakened since the last time a president was sworn in four years ago.
The survey finds an anxious and embattled electorate, the divisions from the November election still raw. Twothirds say the country is headed in the wrong direction, a double-digit jump since last month.
“It should be a happy time ... but I am very nervous and frightened,” said Sandi Bethune, 71, a Democratic retiree from Oakland, California, who voted for Biden.
“We are supposed to be the pinnacle of democracy that the rest of the world aspires to be,” she said in a follow-up interview after being called in the poll. But in the assault Jan. 6 on the Capitol, “we cracked it.”
President Donald Trump’s standing has eroded since his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago. The percentage who say they would definitely vote for him if he ran for president again in 2024 has dropped 7 percentage points since December, to 23%, and his job approval rating has sagged 4 points, to 41%.
Those shifts have taken place in less than four weeks, since a USA TODAY/
Suffolk Poll in mid-December. The new survey of 1,000 registered voters by landline and cellphone was taken Monday through Friday. Each has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The outgoing president retains a significant measure of the political base that has stuck with him through two elections and four tumultuous years. Among Republicans, 55% say they would definitely vote for him if he ran in 2024 – though that’s a big drop from the 71% who said that in December. Twenty-five percent say they might vote for him, and 14% say they would not.
Many Americans were shocked and shaken by video of rioters rampaging through the halls of the Capitol and on the House and Senate floors. Members of Congress barricaded themselves in
offices, and Vice President Mike Pence, a target of some in the mob, narrowly missed being caught.
By 56%-31%, those surveyed predict there will be more violence at the inauguration. By 70%-17%, they say America’s democracy is weaker, not stronger, than it was four years ago.
“I consider the actions by the people that did that treasonous to this country; that’s how serious it is,” said Shellie Belapurkar, 50, a nurse practitioner from Nashua, New Hampshire. A political independent, she voted for Biden.
Those who participated in the Capitol riot are “criminals,” 7 in 10 of those surveyed say. Though almost no one said the protesters “acted appropriately,” about 1 in 4 hedged their criticism. Twenty-four percent say they “went too far, but they had a point.”