More than three-quarters of Americans say democracy is currently under threat, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll.
Seventy-six percent of likely voters say democracy is “currently under threat,” while only 20 percent say it’s not under threat. Another four percent say they don’t know or refused to answer.
Americans are divided, however, about what the nature of the threat is.
Asked to summarize the nature of the threat, 21 percent say Donald Trump; 14 percent say the government or government corruption; 7 percent say immigrants or immigration; 6 percent say loss of constitutional liberty or damage to institutions; 5 percent say instability or express general sentiments about how bad things are; 5 percent say Democrats; 3 percent say Kamala Harris; 3 percent say Joe Biden; 3 percent say foreign policy/war; 3 percent say misinformation or election denialism; 3 percent say social/political divisions; and no other reason had more than 2 percent support.
The likely electorate is split on which party is good for democracy, with 45 percent saying each party is good for democracy. Twenty-nine percent say Democrats are bad for democracy, and 23 percent say they’re neither bad nor good for democracy; while 26 percent say Republicans are bad for democracy, and 25 percent say they are neither bad nor good for democracy.
The survey comes at the end of a campaign where both sides have said the other is bad for democracy.
The survey included 2,516 voters nationally and was conducted from Oct. 20 to 23. The margin of error is 2.2 percentage points.
