A CNN poll released Monday found that 60% of Americans approve of the indictment of former President Donald Trump. And if you dig a little deeper into the results, there’s a fascinating data point about what the public believes drove the indictment.
According to the survey, which was conducted between March 31 and April 1 — immediately after reports emerged that a grand jury had voted to indict Trump — 61% of Democratic-leaning Americans believe politics played a role in the indictment. That number is far lower than the 94% of Republican-leaning respondents who think the same way, but it’s also much more unexpected.
Here’s why. Almost all Democratic-leaning Americans surveyed also approve of indictment — 93% of them to be exact. Taken together, this means a huge chunk of people who lean left-of-center support the indictment, even though they think it’s driven on some level by a political agenda.
What’s evident is that most Americans across the political spectrum believe that the era of institutional normality is over.
There are a few different possible explanations for this, some tied to Trump himself and others to the country’s evolving beliefs about the purpose and trustworthiness of bedrock American institutions. Some reasons are understandable, but others raise uncomfortable questions about whether we’re at risk of entering an irreversible spiral of ends-justify-the-means logic. Either way, what’s evident is that most Americans across the political spectrum believe that the era of institutional normality is over.
CNN’s survey question, “How big a role, if at all, do you think politics played in the decision to indict Trump?” is vague enough that it can be interpreted in different ways. But I think it’s fair to assume the dominant reading of that question is the belief that the charges against Trump were motivated in part by political objections to the former president, particularly as he angles for another stint in the White House.
Read the full article here
