Poll: Most Republicans LOVE IMMIGRANTS ... Dying In Border Barriers Like Jesus Said They Should

When I was a stranger you gave me razor wire and pushed me in the river.

A new poll shows that rightwing Republicans are every bit as bloodthirsty when it comes to immigration as you’d gather from watching the average Trump rally. The 2023 edition of the annual “American Values Survey” conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the Brookings Institution surveyed Americans about a wide range of issues and opinions, from fairly standard poll fare like what they think about the economy to more niche beliefs like whether they agree with the QAnon notion that “The government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.”

Bad news, kids: Belief in that and other QAnon fictions has increased since PRRI began using the questions in 2021; back then, just 15 percent of respondents agreed that a satanic cabal runs everything, but now it’s up to 25 percent. Sigh.

Also, not too surprisingly, the poll found that nearly half (48 percent) of Republicans agree with the statement “Because things have gotten so far off track in this country, we need a leader who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right.” An outright majority, 54 percent, of Republicans with a favorable view of Donald Trump think we should have a leader who’ll break rules, while only 32 percent of Rs who don’t like Trump favor authoritarianism, so good for those supporters of Fascism Lite.

There’s also been a disturbing if not surprising increase in support for the proposition that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” at 23 percent of Americans overall (up from just 15 percent in 2021). A full third of Republicans (33 percent) say violence may be necessary to save America, up from 28 percent in 2021. That percentage goes up to 41 percent of Republican Trump supporters. And among people who think the 2020 election was stolen, it’s damn near half, at 46 percent. Even some Democrats are feeling more stabby than a couple of years ago, up to 13 percent from just 7 percent in 2021. (Wonkette’s comments policy has not changed on this point, and 100% of comments calling for bashing MAGA-hatted heads with a 2X4 will be removed.)

But for our money, which starts out as your money (if you can, please subscribe or do a one-time donation), the creepiest results were in response to a question asking about support for “Installing deterrents such as walls, floating barriers in rivers, and razor wire to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally, even if they endanger or kill some people.” That’s our emphasis, not the poll’s. Maybe if it had been in boldface the results might have differed some. The results should bring a fine grin to the evil face of Greg Abbott, who loves some border cruelty because immigration is a literal invasion that warrants a military response.

But even assuming some portion of respondents focused solely on their love of WALL and ignored the “even if,” this is some grim stuff: Just a small majority overall (52 percent) oppose those barriers, but 44 percent said they supported them. Not surprisingly, the partisan gap — 77 percent of Republicans, just 15 percent of Democrats, and 44 percent of independents — was big enough to drive an apocalypse-ready truck full of duct-taped and gagged women through. (Remember how Trump kept going on about that weird never-happened atrocity? Wish you’d forgotten?)

Oh, it gets even grosser:

Nearly all far-right news viewers (96%) as well as nearly eight in ten Fox News viewers (77%) support this policy, compared with about half of those who do not watch TV news (47%) and 29% of those who watch mainstream news.

Majorities of white Christian subgroups favor this policy, including 74% of white evangelical Protestants, 58% of mainline Protestants/non-evangelical Protestants, and 56% of white Catholics, compared with one-third or less unaffiliated Americans (33%), Hispanic Catholics (27%), non-Christians (26%), and Black Protestants (25%).

They will know we are white Christians by our murder buoys. Oh, but it wasn’t just white Christians; it was white people generally, because Sweet Jesus we are fucked up.

A majority of white Americans (53%) favor installing deterrents such as walls, floating barriers in rivers, and razor wire to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally, even if they endanger or kill some people, compared with 34% of AAPI, 30% of Hispanic Americans, and 23% of Black Americans. Whites without a college degree are more likely than those with a college degree to favor this policy (59% vs. 44%).

We have to say that the pollsters’ nearly robotic repetition of the question, complete with the horrifying dependent clause, nicely underlines what barbaric views entirely too many white Americans have on immigration. That Overton Window has moved so far to the right that we shudder to think how a resumption of Trump’s family separation policy might poll today.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Ordered Troopers To Push Children Into The River

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[Axios / PRRI]

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