Meanwhile, 44 percent backed the American tradition of competing branches of government as a model, if sometimes “frustrating,” system.
Why would people want to live under an authoritarian’s thumb? It’s rooted, experts say, in a psychological need for security—real or perceived—and a desire for conformity, a goal that becomes even more acute as the country undergoes dramatic demographic and social changes. People also like to obey a strong leader who will protect the group—especially if it is the “right” group whose interests will be protected. Recall the Trump supporter who, during the 2019 government shutdown, complained, “He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”
If you check the poll it’s not what you’d expect. The self-identified left had 25% support. The self-identified right had 29% support. The self-identified center had 37 PERCENT support. There’s apparently a thirst for some strong authoritarian radical centrism.
I struggle to trust numbers nowadays. After being on Reddit for 11 years and now here on Lemmy, and around the Internet my entire life, lemme tell you about why people would self-identify as something else for a moment:
Because they are anonymous.
There are a huge amount of people who are on the Right on Lemmy trying to pass off as Blue, or blue-leaning.
As someone who is quite left, I find myself less radically left than many on Lemmy. My beliefs basically fall exactly with Bernie Sanders, which is more left than probably 95% of the entire country, but that isn’t left enough for some people.
If you ask people about policies and not self-identification, Bernie’s ideas have massive support from all Americans. It’s political discourse that has swung right, not the views of typical Americans.
Even without active deception there’s plenty of self-deception. People like the aesthetic of “I’m my own person, not beholden to left or right” while voting left or right every election.
That would be the ‘benevolent dictator’ crowd. Strong amongst the military and business/tech investor class.