A recent Yahoo/YouGov poll suggests that 73% of Republicans are living a fantasy, and that the Big Lie works.
A mere 41% of Republicans surveyed felt Trump's supporters who stormed our Nation's capitol were somewhat to blame for the violence, and death, that occurred while 73% of Republicans feel it is those awful lefties fault.
The survey of 1,588 U.S. adults, which was conducted from May 24 to May 26, found that less than half of Republicans (41 percent) say supporters of then-President Donald Trump who gathered on Jan. 6 at the Capitol to rally against the certification of Joe Biden's Electoral College victory bear "some" or "a great deal" of the blame for the subsequent riot, which left several people dead and more than 140 injured. Less than a quarter (23 percent) blame Trump himself, and most (52 percent) say he is "not at all" to blame.
Yet a full 73 percent of Republicans pin "some" or "a great deal" of responsibility on "left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad," even though both the FBI and Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have rejected the falsehood that leftist protesters were involved.
Worse yet, the number of Republicans who felt, in January, that the insurrection was not justified violence has shifted dramatically. The constant onslaught of lies from conservative pundits, leaders and media outlets have convinced folks that Biden didn't win fair.
Amid a months-long coordinated effort by "a legion of conservative activists, media personalities and elected officials … to rewrite the story of what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6," as the Washington Post recently reported, Republican voters have become far less inclined to see that day's events as unwarranted.
In late January, nearly three-quarters of them (71 percent) told Yahoo News and YouGov that the Capitol attack was "not justified"; today that number has fallen 14 points, to 57 percent. Nearly a quarter (21 percent) now think the attack was justified; another 22 percent aren't sure. And a majority of Republicans (52 percent) say the people who participated on Jan. 6 were "primarily peaceful and law-abiding," even as most Americans (51 percent) view the same participants as "primarily violent and lawless."
Likewise, just 18 percent of Republicans say Biden "won the election fair and square"; nearly two-thirds (64 percent) believe the election was "rigged and stolen from Trump." Even more (72 percent) say that enough fraud occurred in 2020 to "influence the outcome."
Buckle up kids, Democracy is no longer a tentpole in the Republican party.
