MAGA Republicans’ views of American democracy and society and support for political violence in the United States: Findings from a nationwide population-representative survey

Identifying groups at increased risk for political violence can support prevention efforts. We determine whether "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) Republicans, as defined, are potentially such a group. Nationwide survey conducted May 13-June 2, 2022 of adult members of the Ipsos KnowledgeP...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 19; no. 1; p. e0295747
Main Authors: Wintemute, Garen J., Robinson, Sonia L., Tomsich, Elizabeth A., Tancredi, Daniel J.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 03.01.2024
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Aggression
Biden, Joseph R Jr
Civil war
Democracy
Election results
Elections
Endorsements
Engineering and Technology
Evaluation
Firearms
Influence
Internet access
Medicine and Health Sciences
People and places
Political aspects
Political factors
Political parties
Political violence
Politics
Polls & surveys
Population
Presidential elections
Presidents
Prevention
Prevention programs
Public health
Questionnaires
Research and Analysis Methods
Respondents
Review boards
Social Sciences
Societies
Society
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Trump, Donald
Trump, Donald J
United States
Violence
United States
United States > US
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
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Summary:Identifying groups at increased risk for political violence can support prevention efforts. We determine whether "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) Republicans, as defined, are potentially such a group. Nationwide survey conducted May 13-June 2, 2022 of adult members of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. MAGA Republicans are defined as Republicans who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and deny the results of that election. Principal outcomes are weighted proportions of respondents who endorse political violence, are willing to engage in it, and consider it likely to occur. The analytic sample (n = 7,255) included 1,128 (15.0%) MAGA Republicans, 640 (8.3%) strong Republicans, 1,571 (21.3%) other Republicans, and 3,916 (55.3%) non-Republicans. MAGA Republicans were substantially more likely than others to agree strongly/very strongly that "in the next few years, there will be civil war in the United States" (MAGA Republicans, 30.3%, 95% CI 27.2%, 33.4%; strong Republicans, 7.5%, 95% CI 5.1%, 9.9%; other Republicans, 10.8%, 95% CI 9.0%, 12.6%; non-Republicans, 11.2%, 95% CI 10.0%, 12.3%; p < 0.001) and to consider violence usually/always justified to advance at least 1 of 17 specific political objectives (MAGA Republicans, 58.2%, 95% CI 55.0%, 61.4%; strong Republicans, 38.3%, 95% CI 34.2%, 42.4%; other Republicans, 31.5%, 95% CI 28.9%, 34.0%; non-Republicans, 25.1%, 95% CI 23.6%, 26.7%; p < 0.001). They were not more willing to engage personally in political violence. MAGA Republicans, as defined, are more likely than others to endorse political violence. They are not more willing to engage in such violence themselves; their endorsement may increase the risk that it will occur.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0295747