According to a new survey, almost a half of Americans can imagine themselves supporting a coup against the US government. Slightly less than 50% would “hypothetically” back a military takeover if the government violated the Constitution. The results come from an online survey conducted by UK-based YouGov.
When asked if there was a situation in which respondents saw themselves supporting a military coup against the elected government, 29% answered “yes,” while 41% said “no.” Another 30% weren’t sure.
The survey proved that Republicans (43%) are more than twice as likely as Democrats (20%) to support a coup in the US. Among Independents, the majority (3%) said that they could not imagine supporting a coup while 29% agreed that they could.
The results were reversed when the participants were presented with a specific situation in which the government violated the Constitution. In such a case, 4% said that they would “hypothetically support” a military takeover, and 29% said they wouldn’t.
YouGov also looked into people’s attitudes towards politicians and federal civil servants, as well as military and police officers.
Results showed 7% of the participants believe that military officers generally “want what is the best for the country,” and more than 50% believe that police officers have the best interests of the country in mind.
On the other hand, US Congressmen are widely viewed as having selfish interests, as 71% said they only do“what is the best for themselves.” Government workers and local politicians didn’t fare much better, with 37% of respondents saying the same about the former, and 59% about the latter.
The YouGov poll comes less than two weeks after a West Point professor, William C. Bradford, resigned following an uproar over a number of his publications, one of which was about a potential military coup against the president.
NN Sequitur
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