With only days left until America heads to the polls on November 5, a contentious 2024 election is once again forcing the attention to the highly charged animosity between the two U.S. political parties.
But a poll recently published by the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University does not paint much of an upbeat picture when it comes to political feelings: Nearly half of voters in the U.S. see political adversaries as “downright evil.”
The poll, conducted with YouGov, surveyed 2,000 eligible voters across categories: Republicans who believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election, Republicans who accept President Joe Biden’s victory, Democrats, Independents, and a general voter sample. The survey aims to find a sharper understanding of political attitudes at a time when the nation is preparing for another closely contested election.
“Evil” Labels Emerge Among Partisan Lines
According to the survey’s conclusions, 75% of Republicans who believe that the 2020 Republican nominee, Donald Trump, really won the election that year view Democrats not just as opponents but as enemies whose intentions are “evil.” On the other hand, fewer than half of Democrats have a similar level of hostility toward Republicans.
Lilliana Mason, a political scientist from Johns Hopkins University, took this opportunity to weigh in on the development. Vilification, she said, can weaken the spirit of democracy. “When we start to see our political opponents as enemies rather than competitors, compromise and mutual respect become nearly impossible,” said Mason. “This, in turn, poses a serious threat to the health of democracy.”
The survey indicates this polarization, fueled by starkly differing political beliefs, affects voters’ ability to empathize with or understand the perspectives of the other side.
Partisan Gaps Widen on Gender, Race, and Key Issues
This is evident in the case of the SNF Agora Institute, which demonstrates how attitudes regarding a number of the most important issues-the issue of gender roles and racial dynamics, among others-swing widely across party lines. Scott Warren, a fellow at the SNF Agora, pointed out that “2020 election denialism has morphed from a factual dispute into an identity issue,” becoming less about the legitimacy of the election and more a reflection of deep-seated ideological values.
The survey shows that more Republicans who rejected the outcome of the 2020 elections are likely to be supporting the old-fashioned gender roles; 28 percent of them said women should give much more emphasis to the home than working. This is less so among Republicans who accept the Biden presidency (20%), Independents (21%), and Democrats (17%).
The poll further added that racial attitudes, particularly in the context of economic success, were also included. More than 80 percent of the election-denying Republicans stated that Black Americans should “succeed on their own merit,” just like earlier generations of European immigrants, including Irish and Italian populations. This is in direct contrast to the general public opinion, which often acknowledges that there are systemic problems in many communities in the U.S. today.
Different Priorities Between Republicans, Democrats and Independents
More broadly, other issues are also of great interest, again with notable splits in party lines, by which voters base their choice: among the top priorities by Republicans are issues such as the economy, immigration, and crime; for the Democrats, there are strong priorities over issues like the abortion rights, the economic security, and protecting democratic ideals, further revealing their perception of risks facing the U.S. democracy.
Independents – who often can swing an election in the United States – say in a new Pew Research Center survey that their top issues are the economy, immigration, and abortion. The combination of those top issues could be enough to shift the balance on anything from fiscal responsibility to changes in immigration policy to decisions on reproductive rights in 2024.
Kamala Harris Gains Approval Amid Partisan Divisions
The poll suggested that the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, was gaining momentum among voters. Her approval rating had increased from 43% to 46%, and Donald Trump’s approval had held steady at 42%. Of course, those figures are not necessarily indicative of the nation as a whole, but they do represent a change in voter preference-especially as the nation contemplates its first biracial female presidential candidate.
Election Denial and Pro-Democracy Views Among Voter Segments
Interestingly, election accepters are those Republicans who, according to the study, hold “pro-democracy viewpoints.” Warren observes that these people, though they call themselves Republicans, are politically disenfranchised because they accept the outcome of the 2020 election, wherein Biden was declared the winner. This is a small percentage of the Republican electorate and is in favor of democratic institutions, marking a widening gap between the election deniers and the pro-democracy-minded voters.
This internal division within the Republican Party may only help perpetuate partisan cleavages, as the pro-democracy action may run exactly contrary to the ideological impulses of many Republican voters.
American Democracy’s Future
The survey highlights that for many Americans, political rivalry has surpassed the traditional domain of disagreements over policies and governance and entered a domain where the opponent is perceived as an existential threat. This outlook is particularly frightening because democracy, by its very nature, relies on adversaries coexisting peacefully and holding to the commitment of shared governance, even in disagreement.
Vilifying political opponents undermines the very foundation of a democratic society. As Americans prepare to cast their votes, the stakes have never been higher, and the consequences of deepening divisions could shape the nation’s political landscape long beyond the 2024 election.
The findings of the SNF Agora Institute represent a bitter truth about the American political landscape today. In reality, the United States is not merely deciding on its next president but, instead, is being put through the test of its democratic mettle in an unprecedented epoch of polarization.
