Why Conspiracy Theories Flourish in Trump’s America

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Whether he is out of power or in office, Donald Trump deploys conspiracy theory as a political mobilizing tool designed to capture anger at the liberal establishment, to legitimize racial resentment and to unite voters who feel oppressed by what they see as a dominant socially progressive culture.

The success of this strategy is demonstrated by the astonishing number of Republicans — a decisive majority, according to a recent Economist/YouGov survey — who say that they believe that the Democratic Party and its elected officials conspired to steal the 2020 election. This is a certifiable conspiracy theory, defined as a belief in “a secret arrangement by a group of powerful people to usurp political or economic power, violate established rights, hoard vital secrets or unlawfully alter government institutions.” …

The stolen election conspiracy theory has, in effect, become the adhesive holding the dominant Trump wing of the party in lock-step. This particular conspiracy theory joins the network of sub-theories that unite Trump loyalists, who allege that an alliance of Democratic elites and urban political machines have secretly joined forces to deny the will of the people, corralling the votes of illegal immigrants and the dead, while votes cast by Trump supporters are tossed into the trash. CONTINUED

Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times

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Most Americans support gender equity in sports scholarships

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As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, two-thirds of Americans say they know “not much” or “nothing at all” about the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex at schools that receive federal funds, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.

Nonetheless, there is broad support for its mandate as it relates to gender equity in sports, with 85 percent saying they believe colleges and universities should be required to award the same number of athletic scholarships for women as they do men, according to the poll, which was conducted May 4 through May 17 among 1,503 people across the United States. CONTINUED

Liz Clarke, Scott Clement & Emily Guskin, Washington Post

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How many endorse political violence?

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“Professors Debate” is a headline that would not have merited a “breaking news” banner, even under CNN’s old regime.

But this debate is both important and timely, given the January 6 committee hearings: How many Americans countenance political violence and what difference does that level of support make?

As with many academic debates, the differences can seem small. CONTINUED

Mark Mellman (Mellman Group), The Hill

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International Attitudes Toward the U.S., NATO and Russia in a Time of Crisis

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought war to Europe at a scale unseen since the 1940s. In response, the United States and its NATO allies have supplied Ukrainian defense forces with weapons and training, while millions of refugees have fled into neighboring countries. The war has been the center of international attention for months, and as a new 18-nation Pew Research Center survey shows, it has had an impact on public opinion.

Ratings for Russia, which were already negative in most of the nations surveyed, have plummeted further following the invasion. In 10 countries, 10% or less of those polled express a favorable opinion of Russia. Positive views of Russian President Vladimir Putin are in single digits in more than half of the nations polled. …

Meanwhile, overall ratings for the U.S. are largely positive and stable. CONTINUED

Pew Research Center

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Biden Job Approval Not Budging, U.S. Satisfaction Dips

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After a month that encompassed a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the start of the Jan. 6 committee hearings in Congress, and average gas prices hitting $5 a gallon amid rising inflation, President Joe Biden’s job approval rating didn’t change between May and June, holding at 41%.

Biden’s job approval rating has registered 41% since April and has varied by no more than one percentage point from that level all year. CONTINUED

Lydia Saad, Gallup

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American Presidents: Greatest and Worst

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For the seventh time since its inception in 1982, the Siena College Research Institute’s (SCRI) Survey of U.S. Presidents finds that experts rank Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson as the United States’ top five chief executives. The 141 participating presidential scholars agree with their peers over the last 40 years naming the same five leaders as America’s finest. For the second time, scholars include Donald Trump along with Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren Harding and Franklin Pierce in the bottom five. CONTINUED

Siena College Research Institute

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