Every year, right around the time voting is scheduled to begin, the cry goes out – evil conservatives are trying to tamper with voting. From barring access to the polls to making it more difficult to register, Republicans are almost always cast as overbearing, vote-blocking villains in the press. The alternative, though, is more likely to be true, at least according to Rasmussen.
A recent poll by the research giant found that the majority of voters were afraid of violence at the polls – but that fear does not stem from Republicans or conservatives. The Rasmussen poll, released earlier this week have a greater fear of President Donald Trump’s opponents than they do of conservatives or Trump supporters.
“Voters see a bigger threat from President Trump’s opponents over policy issues than from his supporters if Democrats succeed in removing him from office,” Rasmussen observed. “One-in-three still see the threat of civil war in the near future.”
Despite the common portrayal of conservatives as the overbearing, intolerant and just waiting for the chance to be violent parties blocking the polls, the majority of Americans fear violence from another quarter – the far left.
A full 59% of United States voters are afraid of what President Donald Trump’s most outspoken and unpredictable foes might do if the current president secures another victory. That 59 percent includes those that are both “very concerned” that leftists will erupt in violence if the election doesn’t go their way, while another 35 percent consider themselves “afraid” of violence at the polls if elections don’t go their way.
These feelings are not new – according to Rasmussen, polls last year revealed the same results last year. Despite the majority of Americans identifying the threat of violence as coming from the “tolerant” left, the mainstream media continues to push the idea that conservatives are simply waiting for an excuse for a violent outburst.
31 percent of those polled also fear violent unrest in the coming years – voters under the age of 40 making up the majority of this group. The fear doesn’t end if President Trump is removed from office – a whopping 65% of Republicans are concerned that those who are in opposition to President Trump would resort to violence if the president is removed from office.
The fear is largely one sided; Democrats are not as worried about outbursts from Trump supporters as the news might make it seem. Only 18 percent fear violence from conservatives if the president is removed from office.
The poll was conducted last week and has a 95 percent confidence level from the firm. Very few media sites or outlets carried these results, primarily because they don’t align with the current narrative.
