A new survey by Rasmussen Reports suggests a disturbing love affair between American voters and authoritarianism. Democrats openly support a dictatorship. Republican responses weren’t terribly impressive either and probably would have been worse if the authoritarianism was presented in a different context.
48% of Americans support President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate (which the supreme court ruled against this week), and the split closely follows party lines. 78% of Democrats support, compared to only 22% of Republicans and 41% of nonaffiliated voters. As controversial as a vaccine mandate is, respondents’ answers to the survey’s other questions were equally distressing.
– Nearly half (48%) of Democratic voters think federal and state governments should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications. Only 27% of all voters – including just 14% of Republicans and 18% of unaffiliated voters – favor criminal punishment of vaccine critics.
– Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a policy would be opposed by a strong majority (71%) of all voters, with 78% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters saying they would Strongly Oppose putting the unvaccinated in “designated facilities.”
So an overwhelming majority of Democrats support an unconstitutional and undemocratic vaccine mandate, and an appallingly large minority of them support even more extreme measures, including the abolishment of free speech and literally putting people into camps.
Yes, I specifically singled out Democrats, but that doesn’t mean Republicans are sentinels of morality. Reframe this question with a hot issue that Republicans are emotionally invested in, like Muslim radicals or China, and I guarantee the results would have been very different. Polarizing the American public to this extreme reaps huge advantages for our ruling elites. Polarization causes a constant state of fear and uncertainty, which in turn produces a willingness to accept totalitarianism. Like Rome wasn’t built a day, the death of American democracy didn’t happen overnight either.
It’s not necessary to scare Republicans and Democrats at the same time with the same issue. Increasingly draconian measures have been implemented piecemeal since the early days of the Cold War. It started with witch hunts against communists in the 1950s, and now we’re having serious conversations about herding millions of people into camps. This massive expansion of government power won’t go away once the threat of COVID is over, just like it didn’t when George Bush declared mission accomplished in the War on Terror. It is socially acceptable to talk about putting people in camps to fight COVID, to fight “insurrectionists,” and God knows what else. What will the next crisis be? Climate change? Russia? Does the purported justification even matter anymore?
Ian Kummer
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All systems so far would reach a point where some animals within and/or outside became more equal/democratic/healthy/Aryan, etc. than other. Causes remain the same: greed for power, money or both. Manufactured consent, fear, scarce, hate, etc. is a useful tool to redirect public attention while something important is happening. Something important is usually (re)distribution of riches. Sorry, if I'm digressing.
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