The fall of Black Lives Matter

For the last several years, a polling organization called Civiqs, which is affiliated with the left-wing website Daily Kos, has conducted surveys on support for Black Lives Matter. In the latest poll, released last week, Civiqs found that 44% of those surveyed support BLM, while 43% oppose, and 11% say they neither support nor oppose. So it is fair to say the country is evenly divided on BLM.

But a look at who supports BLM shows a starkly political divide. The survey found that 85% of Democrats support BLM, while just 4% oppose. On the other side, 87% of Republicans oppose BLM, versus just 3% who support it. The political parties are almost mirror images of each other, divided nearly perfectly along partisan lines.

But what about independents? The pollsters found that independent support for BLM has fallen steadily since its peak immediately after George Floyd’s death in May 2020. Sometime in the summer of this year, independent support fell below opposition. In the new poll, 47% say they oppose BLM, while 37% say they support it, and 15% say neither.