poses a unique and significant threat to democracy has been a theme of Biden’s rhetoric since before his 2020 election, though he sharpened the argument significantly after the riot at the Capitol onNew Washington Post-Schar School polling conducted in six swing states shows that confidence in democracy and American elections is lower among supporters of Donald Trump — but that voters in those states are more likely to say thataddressing those concerns.
Most swing-state voters said that representative democracy is a good form of government. Just about a third, though, said authoritarianism would be. The difference in the views of those who did or didn’t identify Fox News as a major source of news show the divergence between partisanship and support for authoritarianism. Fox News viewers were less likely than respondents overall to say they were satisfied with the state of democracy, that American elections are fair or that the 2020 election was legitimate. Those who didn’t cite Fox as a main source of news were more likely than respondents overall to hold those positions.
There are a lot of ways in which this makes sense. Younger voters tend to vote less often, so there’s overlap between these groups. Non-White Americans are also less likely to vote and skew younger than White Americans. Older Americans were more likely to be around during the Cold War, when hostility to authoritarian forms of government was a central element of American foreign policy.
There were other outliers. Double-haters, respondents dissatisfied with both Trump and Biden as candidates, were a lot more dissatisfied with democracy than their views of 2020 would suggest. Hispanic Catholics and those satisfied with both candidates were more satisfied with democracy, too.