WaPo Poll: Americans not as woke as WaPo would have you believe

There must be some sad faces over at the Washington Post this week after they received the results of a new poll conducted with ABC News. The subject under examination was once again the issue of racial tension in American society, excessive use of force by police against minorities and tearing down symbols some people find objectionable.

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As to the overall view of the Black Lives Matter movement, they found that BLM still enjoys increased support over the levels we saw back in 2016. A majority of Americans support the movement with 69% saying Black people and other minorities don’t receive fair or equal treatment from law enforcement. There are multiple questions on variations of that theme and the article spends quite some time detailing each aspect supporting those propositions. But then we get to the part that liberals won’t be happy to see, though you have scroll down twenty paragraphs before it’s mentioned. How do Americans feel about defunding the police or tearing down statues and other symbols that the mobs disapprove of? As it turns out, that’s all a bridge too far for a majority of Americans.

Yet the Post-ABC poll finds far less support for some other high-profile proposals that have been in the forefront of public debate recently. On the issue of police funding, for example, 55 percent of Americans oppose moving funds from police departments to social services — and 43 percent say they oppose it “strongly.”

Republicans are the most opposed, with 84 percent saying they’re against such a shift. Among independents, 53 percent are opposed, while 59 percent of Democrats support such shifts.

On this issue, there is a sizable generation gap. Over half of Americans under age 40 support a funding shift, while less than a third of Americans 40 and older are in favor of moving funding from police to social services.

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To listen to the talking heads on CNN every day you’d think that defunding the police was a de facto popular idea around the country. But majorities of both Republicans and independents are opposed to the concept. Democrats are the outliers here, and even then, only 40% of them either support the idea or have no opinion. And yet we see one elected Democratic official or candidate after another lining up to condemn the police and talk about “reallocating” some of their funding. (Including Joe Biden, no matter how much the press tries to shield him from his own words.)

But the bad news for the woke crowd doesn’t stop there. 63% of Americans oppose paying reparations to the descendants of slaves, while only 31% support the proposal. Once again, both Republicans and independents are opposed, with the largest support coming from Democrats at 53%. A slight majority (52%) oppose removing public statues honoring Confederate generals. Solid majorities of both Republicans and independents are opposed.

How about removing statues of American presidents who were slave owners? 68 percent of Americans are opposed to that scheme, with only one quarter (25%) being in favor. The list goes on from there in a similar theme. Half of Americans oppose renaming military bases currently named after Confederate generals. All of this woke mob rule is not popular with most voters.

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And yet to listen to Democratic politicians and the media figures who love them, you could easily be led to believe that all of these things are popular except with a handful of racist holdouts in conservative enclaves. The people opposed to all of this woke madness generally aren’t given a voice in the mainstream media. The real question is whether the silent majority will be showing up in November and having the final say on the matter.

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John Sexton 7:00 PM | December 06, 2024
David Strom 6:00 PM | December 06, 2024
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