Why Republicans Take Jan. 6 Less Seriously Than Other Americans

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Historically, Americans have disagreed about the seriousness of national tragedies – you think September 11, 2001. However, this was not the case when the US Capitol was stormed on January 6, 2021.

Yes, a year later, more than 70 percent of Americans Still view January 6 as a bad or tragic day for America, including 60 percent of Republicans, but there is still a strong partisan divide on more specific aspects of the January 6 attack which shows that many Republicans are retaining its importance keep it low.

Although an average of 63 percent of Americans in four recent polls supported Congressional investigation into the day’s events, an average of 59 percent of Republicans opposed it. Likewise, 56 percent of those asked about a YouGov / University of Massachusetts poll December 14-20 felt it was important for us to learn more about what happened January 6, but 75 percent of Republicans said it was time to move on.

Republicans also tend to describe the events of January 6th and its participants in friendlier language. For example, YouGov / the University of Massachusetts found that 62 percent of Republicans used the word “protesters” to describe the people who broke into the Capitol, while only 31 percent called them “rioters” and 10 percent called them “insurgents.” . An above-average 26 percent even called them “patriots”.

Likewise a Poll from December 27th to 30th by YouGov / CBS News found that the majority of Americans overall labeled January 6 an “insurrection” and “attempt to overthrow the US government,” but around four-fifths of Republicans said they would not use those terms. Almost half (47 percent) of Republicans, however, described the rioters’ actions as “patriotism” and 56 percent as “defense of freedom”. When the pollster asked these respondents why they felt this way, most said that the rioters “exercised their right to protest” (82 percent) and “raised awareness”. [perceived] Fraud in the 2020 election ”(79 percent). Only 35 percent said they were “trying to stop the vote counting” or “targeting Democrats and those who are disloyal to Donald Trump”.

This points to an important reason why Republicans seem to be taking January 6th less seriously than other Americans: they are simply subscribing to a different reality of what happened that day. For example a Poll in December from the Associated Press / NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that while 64 percent of adults overall felt the events of Jan. 6 were extremely or very violent, only 39 percent of Republicans thought so. And after a YouGov / Yahoo News poll From December 18-22, 50 percent of Republicans believed the rioters were primarily peaceful and law-abiding, while only 33 percent believed they were primarily violent and lawless. Finally, YouGov / the University of Massachusetts found that while Americans overall thought politicians’ lives were likely or definitely at risk (58 percent versus 43 percent) on Jan. 6, Republicans thought they were likely or definitely not (72 percent to 28 percent).

A sizable segment of Republicans even agree with the conspiracy theory that January 6th was a false flag operation perpetrated by liberals. YouGov / CBS News found that 41 percent of Republicans believed that “most of those who invaded the Capitol were left-wing groups who pretended to be Trump supporters.” And after a 2nd-4th January poll by YouGov / The Economist, Republicans believed that Trump was 51 to 26 percent opponent involved in the uprising 59 to 14 percent that Antifa was involved and 52 to 23 percent that Black Lives Matter was involved. In contrast, Americans generally believe these groups were not involved and instead blame Trump himself on Jan. 6. In an average of four polls, 55 percent of Americans said Trump deserved at least some responsibility for the attack, while 38 percent thought he deserved little or no responsibility.

The deep partisan divide in public opinion – and on fundamental facts – over January 6th leaves Americans pessimistic about further political violence in the future. YouGov / Yahoo News found that 60 percent of Americans thought an attack like January 6th could happen again, and Momentive / Axios found that 57 percent of Americans thought January 6th would be something or very likely to happen again in the next few years. According to YouGov / CBS News, 62 percent of Americans also expected violence in future presidential elections.

In addition, current surveys have found a remarkably high value support for political violence. after a Washington Post / University of Maryland survey conducted December 17-19, 34 percent of adults said violent actions against the government were sometimes justified – up from just 9 percent in a May 1995 Washington Post / ABC News poll. And according to YouGov / CBS News 28 Percent of Americans said election results are so important that sometimes violence could be justified in getting them through.

Survey experiments by political scientists who Bright Line clock found that some polls may overestimate support for political violence. After reviewing the wording of the question and paying attention to the poll, they found that only 4 percent of respondents said they support the use of force to stop voting certification on January 6th. This coincides with the answers to some of the less consistent abstract questions that YouGov / CBS News also asked. For example, only 4 percent of Americans told them Trump should use force to take back the presidency, and only 2 percent of those who anticipated violence in future elections said they advocate violence if their side loses. Still, 4 percent of the adult US population is more than 10 million people – certainly enough to be worrying.

Other polling bites

  • There’s no love between Americans and 2021, such a new one Suffolk University / USA Today survey. When asked to describe the year with a single word, more than two-thirds used negative terms such as “awful”, “awful”, “chaos”, “challenging”, “catastrophe” or “catastrophe”. For the new year, however, they are optimistic: 53 percent said they saw 2022 as hopeful or enthusiastic, 44 percent said they were worried, exhausted or fearful.
  • Coronavirus cases have been reached All time highs, and the highly transferable Omikron variant already causes Disorders of daily life. A new one, however Harris poll found Americans were 51-49 percent split on whether the pandemic would get worse or better in 2022.
  • after a Poll at the end of December from Change Research for CNBC, multiple registered voters (38 percent) blamed Biden most for rising commodity prices, and another 11 percent blamed government spending. However, 26 percent blamed the pandemic and 23 percent the companies. However, there is a large party split on this issue, with Trump voters almost exclusively blaming Biden or government spending and Biden voters almost exclusively blaming the pandemic or the corporations. However, this is hardly surprising when you consider how partisan issues such as inflation can be.

Biden approval

According to FiveThirtyEight’s Presidential Approval Tracker, 42.9 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s job as president, while 51.7 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -8.8 points). At this point last week, 43.4 percent had been approved and 51.6 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -8.3 points). A month ago, Biden had an approval rate of 42.7 percent and a rejection rate of 50.9 percent, which corresponds to a net approval rating of -8.2 points.

General ballot

Why Republicans Take Jan. 6 Less Seriously Than Other Americans 2

On our average of the polls for the generic congressional vote, Republicans currently lead by 0.5 percentage points (42.4 percent to 41.9 percent). A week ago, the Republicans led the Democrats with 0.8 points (42.8 percent to 42.0 percent). At that time last month, voters preferred the Republicans with 0.6 points (43.1 percent versus 42.5 percent).

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