Poll: Trump supporters want a leader who will 'do anything to solve America's problems'

An interesting Quinnipiac poll was released today which shows Donald Trump’s supporters are most likely to believe their values are under attack and that a strong leader is needed to do whatever is necessary to solve America’s problems. Politico reports:

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For instance, 96 percent of his supporters said the U.S. needs a powerful leader to solve its problems, 91 percent said their beliefs and values are being threatened, and 90 percent said public officials don’t care much about what everyday people think.

Those figures, which combine those who strongly agree with those who somewhat agree, are far above the results for supporters of other candidates. From the Quinnipiac press release:

The pattern continues as 62 percent of all voters, including 85 percent of all Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats agree that their “beliefs and values are under attack.” Ninety one percent of Trump backers agree, the highest of any candidate.

“Many American voters, especially Republicans, are dissatisfied with their own status and the status of the country, but by far the most dissatisfied are Donald Trump’s supporters, who strongly feel that they themselves and the country are under attack,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, PhD.

Trump’s supporters were also the most likely to believe that their candidate is leading a “movement” rather than simply running a campaign, with 90% agreeing that was true of Trump compared to 73% for Ted Cruz and 57% for John Kasich. In fact, the candidate who came closest to Trump on this question was Bernie Sanders at 82 percent.

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Similarly, Trump supporters were enthusiastic for “radical change” with 83% saying they agree. The next closest candidate was, again, Bernie Sanders at 76 percent. Sanders is fond of framing his candidacy as a political revolution.

There’s not much detail suggested in this poll about what beliefs and values are threatened, which problems need to be solved or what type of radical change is needed. The closest thing to a policy position mentioned in the poll is probably this statement: “I feel as though I’m falling further and further behind economically.” A total of 78% of Trump supporters agreed. Cruz supporters came in at 62% and Sanders supporters at 61 percent. This supports the idea that Trump is tapping into economic dissatisfaction but also a general distrust in government to make changes.

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