Trump trusted more than Biden on democracy among key swing-state voters

[Celerity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/26/biden-trump-swing-state-poll-democracy/

https://archive.ph/p816n



President Biden and his Democratic allies have cast his reelection campaign as a battle for the country’s survival, warning that a second Donald Trump presidency would present an existential threat to American democracy.
In speeches and campaign ads, Biden points to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, his incitement of an angry mob that ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the former president’s boasts that he will use the powers of his office to punish his political enemies. But that message may not be resonating with the voters Biden needs in order to win another term in the White House.

In six swing states that Biden narrowly won in 2020, a little more than half of voters classified as likely to decide the presidential election say threats to democracy are extremely important to their vote for president, according to a poll by The Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Yet, more of them trust Trump to handle those threats than Biden. And most believe that the guardrails in place to protect democracy would hold even if a dictator tried to take over the country. The results offer troubling indicators for Biden, who needs voters who may be unenthusiastic about his candidacy to decide they must reject Trump to preserve America’s system of representative government.

“Many Americans don’t recognize Biden’s custodianship of our democracy, which is a bad sign for his campaign,” said Justin Gest, a professor of policy and government at George Mason University. The poll surveyed the views of 3,513 registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in April and May. Of those surveyed, 2,255 were classified as “Deciders” — those who fit into one or more categories: They voted in only one of the past two presidential elections; are between ages 18 and 25; registered to vote since 2022; did not definitely plan to vote for either Biden or Trump this year; or switched their support between 2016 and 2020.



For many voters, democracy is an abstract idea, less tangible than issues like the economy, abortion or immigration. Still, most voters, regardless of party, report that the issue matters to them. Gest noted that “the vast majority don’t want to tip toward more authoritarian control,” with systems of representative or direct democracy polling far more favorably. Among key-state voters who identify themselves as locked-in Biden supporters, 78 percent see threats to democracy as extremely important. Among Trump backers, that’s true of 71 percent. Threats to democracy are second only to the economy in the percentage of swing state voters overall who describe the issue as extremely important.



snip

[Meadowoak]

1. Propaganda

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Do not believe.

Our Country can't be this stupid, right?

[triron]

8. Want to bet?

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. They only voted in one election but switched support between them?

Why are people who only vote 50% of the time considered “deciders”?

[msongs]

4. because this article is an editorial nt

[Celerity]

9. It is not an editorial.

[elleng]

5. SOURCE: WaPo April 15 - May 30 1684 voters

Ariz, GA, Mich, NV, PA, WI.

[JohnSJ]

6. bullshit. We will see what happens in November, just how accurate these polls are.

[DemocraticPatriot]

7. The World (or at least America) is turned upside down...

Maybe the Germans thought that Adolf Hitler was more likely to preserve democracy in Germany, than the more moderate German political parties ??? I don't know---

but I do know that the German industrialists believed that they could control him--

(i.e. the Republican capitalists in America today who think they can control Trump...
and the 'working class voters' who support Trump, thinking he is 'on their side'--
even though he has opposed any advancements in labor rights
for his entire life....)

[Doodley]

11. It's deeply disturbing.

[Doodley]

10. I believe these polls. Trump sucks up the publicity. Debate crucial to educate voters who haven't been paying attention

[Sky Jewels]

12. The guy who attempted a literal coup d'etat is more trusted...

Let that sink in.

Gee, it would have been nice if Merrick Fucking Garland had taken the attempted overthrow of our democracy seriously. You’d think the AG of the USA might have prioritized preserving the rule of law by going after the coup architects. But obviously he doesn’t give a shit…or, as many of us have suspected, is actually playing for the other team. If Trump takes over, Garland will go down in history as the guy who helped flush away our Constitution and free elections system and 249 years of representative government.

[Fiendish Thingy]

14. That's right, accept a meaningless poll as evidence to support your contempt for Garland

Feel better now?

[Sky Jewels]

16. Why hasn't Garland pursued justice by

prosecuting the ringleaders who planned a coup and literally tried to overthrow the government of the USA?

Do you think that is a trivial issue?

What is your excuse for Garland?

[Fiendish Thingy]

18. The ringleaders were listed as unindicted co-conspirators in Trump's indictment

If they had been indicted first, discovery would have provided them with the names of the witnesses DOJ was planning on calling, which Trump could then threaten, bribe, or silence.

By indicting Trump first, the co-conspirators can see what evidence will be used against them, and consider flipping (Meadows apparently already has).

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. So "deciders" from six states are lumped into one group of 1,000 respondents

So that WaPo can claim an MOE of +/-3.6%

There is a 9 point margin among the six state group of deciders who Trust Trump over Biden

But that really means each state would have an n= around 175 respondents, which means:

1) the subgroup is too small to calculate an MOE, or
2) the MOE is so large (like, double digits) as to be meaningless

I guarantee you the Trump/Biden trust gap is larger in GA than it is in PA, so, how useful is this artificially constructed statistic to predicting the outcome of the election?

[blm]

15. Dems, imo, still aren't muscling these issues the way they should

to break through the constant wall of noise from the GOP.

DNC couldn’t put together an A team of knowledgeable, aggressive spokespeople to seat on EVERY show on EVERY news channel consistently laying out the facts in easily processed terms? It should have been up and running last year BEFORE the Fvcking bullzhit narratives from Republicans took hold.

This has been a 3 decade long issue I have had with the DNC. They put their candidates out there like star quarterbacks without providing a skilled offensive line.

Link to tweet

/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1805759792159371525%7Ctwgr%5E98d65d0f9adbfb8c06da1666f5491482dc2fc851%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F100219064528

[Mountainguy]

17. If you aim to survey the dumbest people, you will get the dumbest results

Ages 18-25, don't usually vote, and don't really plan to vote in this election...

Let's poll those people.