Mis-information Threatens Democracy

It comes as little surprise in an era marked by falsehoods, unproven assertions, conspiracy theories and allegations of “fake news” that voters regard mis-information as the biggest partisan-related threat to democracy.

Perhaps it also shouldn’t be surprising that Republicans and Democrats seem to feel, in almost equal numbers, that it’s the other side that’s being mis-informed.

Those are the findings of the latest public opinion poll conducted for Our Common Purpose by SurveyUSA during the week between impeachment and inauguration. As with the previous polls, the survey was of 1,500 voters nationwide.

Slightly more than 6 of 10 respondents (61%) chose mis-information from a list of five partisan-related threats. The tally was nearly equally split between Biden voters (65%) and Trump voters (61%).

The result was close to the same for all age groups, ethnicities, and regions of the country. Rural voters (69%) and college grads (66%) were even a little more inclined to hit on mis-information.

With respondents allowed to pick as many of the five choices as they thought appropriate, the next biggest threat (chosen by 56%) were “ever-worsening personal attacks” being made on each other. This was slightly more of a concern to Biden voters (60%) and women (62%) than to Trump voters (53%) and men (50%).

Mis-information and personal attacks were followed by “over-reaching politicians” (50%) and “hyper-partisanship” (32%). Only 22% of voters saw an “apathetic public” as a concern.