American won't be rid of demagoguery when Trump goes

By Francis Wilkinson / Bloomberg Opinion

A large national survey released last week by PRRI, a nonpartisan, nonprofit polling organization, applied some sharp detail to the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S.

The overall trend, of course, is unmistakable. Donald Trump lavishes praise on international thugs and promises to unleash vengeance on any American who excites his insecurities or inhibits his criminality. The Republican-majority Supreme Court issued an ahistorical, counter-constitutional ruling earlier this year with an express goal to shield Trump from accountability for crimes committed in office, thus supplying tacit approval of new crimes should he return to the White House. Republican state officials increasingly employ anti-democratic means to rule their states. Meanwhile, the threat of another violent MAGA coup attempt looms over the election landscape.

The PRRI survey, conducted online in June with a sample of 5,352 adults, is partly about Trump’s supply-side authoritarianism. But it’s also about the demand side. The poll shows the crosscurrents of Trumpism, Christian nationalism and right-wing propaganda — Fox News and its ilk play a supporting role — that fuel authoritarian views. Republicans who don’t adhere to far-right Christian doctrine, don’t view Trump favorably, or don’t rely on right-wing news are all far less likely to hold authoritarian views than those who do.

For example, more than one-fourth of Republicans (27 percent) say that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country, more than three times the percentage of Democrats who say the same. But Trump fans (32 percent) are three times as likely as Republicans who hold unfavorable views of Trump (11 percent) to support political violence.

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