NPR/Marist/PBS poll: 6/10 Americans against removal of Confederate Statues

[Terry the Fat Shark]

Americans overall were as a majority against Donald Trump's job performance, against his response to Charlottesville (calling it weak), and don't trust him on North Korea. However:
"Republicans were twice as likely as Democrats to say they supported keeping statues that honor Confederate leaders. Two-thirds of whites and Latinos said these statues should not be removed. African-American respondents were split, with 44 percent saying the statues should remain in place, and another 40 percent saying they need to be removed because some people find them offensive."

Full crosstabs: http://maristpoll.marist.edu/nprpbs-newshourmarist-poll-results-on-charlottesville

[GlobeSoc]

Notable for the lack of racial polarization here, but the opinion on this isn't very important.

Is there a regional breakdown? The south might be interesting relative to the rest of the results

[Helsinkian]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

SJWs will call them white supremacists.

[Mike Thick]

And 44% of Democrats support keeping them. Wow.

I would really be interested to see what the numbers look like in Virginia, since that could signal how this whole debacle will affect the gubernatorial.

[Green Line]

Latinos are much more supportive of White Nationalism than any other group.  Trump is getting to them.

[The Free North]

Most likely because the issue is fabricated and sensationalized and has little substance to it.

[Dr. Arch]

Latinos are much more supportive of White Nationalism than any other group.  Trump is getting to them.

lmao, pls

[Lord Admirale]

I think that number will be much lower if they focus only on the south, and much higher if they exclude the south.

[Green Line]

I think that number will be much lower if they focus only on the south, and much higher if they exclude the south.

The georgraphic breakdown is in the results.

[Rookie Yinzer]

The history behind these men and especially the Civil War has been incredibly white washed and desensitized. This result is not surprising.

[AN63093]

Excluding for the South does move the numbers, but a majority still against removal:

                     For-Against-Unsure
Northeast     53-33-14
Midwest        61-29-10
South            66-23-11
West             61-27-11

Only a slight difference by gender:

Men              63-26-11
Women        61-28-11

Some difference by age, but much less you may think:

18-29           60-30-11
30-44           60-28-12
45-59           63-27-10
>60              66-23-11

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

How stupid are the millennials! What a disgrace!

[Cashew]

The history behind these men and especially the Civil War has been incredibly white washed and desensitized. This result is not surprising.

Agreed. Frankly it's shocking that they managed to remove as many monuments as they have.

[Green Line]

I dont remember learning about Confederates at all, except Lee, who is usually portrayed in a positive light.  Jefferson Davis is certainly not respected in the North.

[TheLeftwardTide]

A typical wedge issue meant to divide the working class into voting against their own interests. I really hope Democrats don't run on this issue in 2018, but I don't think they will anyway. I'm personally in support of relocating confederate statues into museums but I really think it should be decided by a referendum in each community.

Trump needs to hurry up and say something stupid so we can move on to the next pointless argument nobody cares about

[AN63093]

From what you have heard or seen about each of the following do you mostly agree or mostly disagree with their beliefs: Antifa?

Mostly agree, Mostly disagree, No opinion, Unsure

5-24-18-53

Among strong Dems:

9-20-19-52

Blacks:

5-31-19-45


Suggesting that most people don't really know about the group, but once they learn about it, the favorable group is extremely low.  The numbers for outright support are actually even lower than the Alt-Right, but are higher than white nationalists.

White nationalists get 73% opposed nation-wide, Alt-Right is only 48%.  6% nation-wide support the Alt-Right.  The highest number is among the 18-29 group (10%).

[Daniel909012]

The monuments represent the history and culture of the south and should not be eliminated, the left only sow hatred and division.

[Saint Milei]

This isn't an issue. Idk why people care so much about statues.

[AN63093]

Anyways, after posting/combing through some of the geographic results and other questions, my "gut feeling" from this past week was mainly confirmed:

That being, while most people find Trump's response either weak or not very presidential, most people aren't particularly keen on people going around removing the statues, and probably lump all the groups together (whether that be white nationalists, antifa, or what have you) and consider them all violent provocateurs.  The numbers confirm my suspicions that most people probably just don't want to see this sorta thing in the news every night, and aren't drawing fine distinctions between groups.

My advice for Dems then, coming from a "Democrats strategist" perspective then, would be to manage this issue carefully to ensure the right optics:

-Dems will want to focus on condemning Trump's response; not necessarily his comments on the statues (which people agree with), but rather the Dems should stress words like: Trump was "unsympathetic" or "indifferent" to the violence.  Another good line might be, Trump was "being petty" in light of the violence.

-Dems will want to avoid efforts to remove the statues, including Booker's bill about the US capitol.  My suspicion, which seems mostly supported by the poll, is that most people don't care about the statues and certainly aren't 'triggered' by their presence or anything.  I suspect most Americans just lump people like Lee, Washington, and so on, all together in one group as "old guys in the history book."  I would be surprised if people even knew the difference.  Maybe between Lee and Washington, but between Lee and a lot of other historical American figures, probably not.  Therefore by persisting on this issue, the Dems give Trump more ammo for his "who's next? Washington?" line.  Whether one agrees with it or not, I think that's a pretty good line for the GOP to strategically demagogue and can probably get most people on their side on that, if Dems keep pushing the issue.  The quicker the Dems drop the issue, the less likely they are to be labeled as the party that wants to "remove the Jefferson Memorial" and so on (doesn't matter if they actually want to or not, this is the meme that will stick the longer the issue stays alive).

-Dems should condemn both white nationalists and Antifa publicly, and then behind the scenes, should also get talking points to the media and tell them to limit the amount of coverage Antifa gets, to as little as is possible, to keep that "no opinion" and "unsure" percentage (that I posted from the poll) as high as possible.

[Suburbia]

I personally believe the Confederate monuments should be removed, and be put in a museum. Period.

Other than that, America has more important issues to discuss like jobs, taxes, race, etc.

[Dr. Arch]

I personally believe the Confederate monuments should be removed, and be put in a museum. Period.

Other than that, America has more important issues to discuss like jobs, taxes, race, etc.

[Cashew]

The history behind these men and especially the Civil War has been incredibly white washed and desensitized. This result is not surprising.

Agreed. Frankly it's shocking that they managed to remove as many monuments as they have.

Upon further reflection, this is a wedge issue as others have mentioned, but I doubt it will be as effective as others on this thread have made it out to be. Let us also remember that Democrats have been fruitlessly trying to use the "90% support background checks" talking point but few people are motivated to vote on that issue anyway. I can see a similar situation developing here, where a minority that strongly opposes the monuments forces city councils to take them down, whereas the majority weakly opposes it and forgets about the whole thing by next week (so long as there is not too much media attention devoted to it). The few that do feel strongly will be disproportionately racist and make fools of themselves, which in turn will only make it easier to get more of them removed while the rest of the country shrugs.

[windjammer]

I think only the true racists care about this kind of stuff.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I think only the true racists care about this kind of stuff.

So the people taking down the statues are racist now?

[Alabama_Indy10]

I think only the true racists care about this kind of stuff.

So the people taking down the statues are racist now?