Survey: 60 Percent Of Republicans Say White Supremacy Is A Problem In U.S.
Democrats aren’t the only Americans who think white supremacy is a concern.
Approximately 60 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of Trump voters agree that white supremacist extremism is a “problem” facing the United States as the 2022 midterm elections approach, according to a new VICE News/YouGov poll published on Oct. 27. About 93 percent of Democrats shared that view.
After the Jan. 6 insurrection and mass shootings by accused white supremacists, it’s hard to ignore the facts.
In June 2021, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the greatest domestic threat facing the United States comes from “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” The New York Times reported.
“Specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race,” Garland testified.
Still, the poll uncovered a partisan divide on views about the severity of the threat white supremacists pose to the nation.
Just 23 percent of Republicans view it as a “major problem,” compared to 73 percent of Democrats. Almost 70 percent of Democrats think white supremacy has gotten worse, but only 26 percent of Republicans agree.
Those divergent views on the severity of the threat are reflected in Congress. In the aftermath of a white supremacist killing 10 Black people in Buffalo, U.S. Senate Republicans in May blocked a bill, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, that would have enhanced federal resources to prevent domestic terrorism. The measure passed in the Democratic-controlled House days earlier in a 222-203 party-line vote.
The bill called for threat assessments of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. GOP lawmakers argued that the bill largely ignored far-left extremism, a threat that The Associated Press reported in 2020 as overblown.
The poll, which was taken the week of Oct. 17, surveyed American adults on issues that also included abortion, marijuana, and the 2020 election.
