When Donald Trump proposed to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States following the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, he surged in the polls and hasn’t slumped since. Just after last week’s attacks in Brussels, Ted Cruz called for more intense police surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods in U.S. cities, a proposal that has been shown to be a popular one. Words and phrases like “jihadists,” “radical Islam,” “Islamic terrorism,” and “Sharia law,” have become conservative buzzwords, strategically hard-wired in our modern cultural vernacular to invoke rage, isolationist behaviors, hyper-nationalism, and memories of a crumbling New York skyline.
While some more progressive-minded politicians and voters, on the whole, objectively view this strategy for what it is — fearfulness and bigotry wrapped in a cloak composed of unnecessary paranoia — anti-Muslim views coursing through the United States’ cultural veins have never been stronger and while we like to disproportionately attach these prejudicial ideas to the more socially conservative among us, the reality is that anti-Muslim sentiment is not confined by the stone walls of partisanship. Contrary to what progressives (including myself) have believed, that these radical views were confined to a small subset of far-right conservatives, anti-Muslim sentiment is shared by many — urban and rural, conservative and liberal, white and non-white, male and female, young and old.
Morning Consult conducted a survey of over 2,000 United States voters from March 24 to March 26, asking voters whether or not they supported a variety of national security proposals related to anti-Muslim sentiment that has been observed among United States politicians and voters. Morning Consult found that American voters “appear to be willing to do whatever it takes, even backing what amounts to a revocation of essential American liberties and ideals, in an effort to keep us safe.” The results compiled by Morning Consult are, to say the least, disturbing and eye-opening, putting on display how fearful we have become and making a poignant argument that, at least when it comes to that seemingly institutional fear, terrorists have been wildly successful in achieving their goals.
Overall, half of respondents voiced total support for a temporary ban on Muslims traveling to the United States, compared to 38 percent opposed and 11 percent unsure. In terms of partisanship, 34 percent of respondents who identify as Democrats expressed total support of the ban, alongside 49 percent of respondents who identify as independents and 71 percent of respondents who identify as Republicans. The responses compiled by Morning Consult do not support as clean a partisan break as once thought. Over 1-in-3 Democrats, who are routinely associated with movements to stop these kinds of bigoted proposals, actually wholly support them.
Ted Cruz’s proposal to intensify police patrols of Muslim neighborhoods also doesn’t enjoy as neat a partisan split as many assume it does. While 70 percent of Republicans and 46 percent of independents support increasing law enforcement presence in Muslim neighborhoods, 35 percent of Democrats share their sentiment. Again, over 1-in-3 Democrats, who are routinely associated with movements to stop these kinds of bigoted proposals, actually wholly support them.
While these results alone are enough to question certain preconceived notions held by portions of the American voting bloc, the rest of the survey is just as mind-blowing, for it shows that portions American voters talk about American values in one way, but practice them in another.
45 percent of voters polled said the United States government needs to “stop tying its hands and start using advanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, against suspected terrorists in order to defeat ISIS,” even with all of the controversy surrounding such tactics, including the CIA torture report from December 2014 and international interest in trying former President George W. Bush and members of his administration for war crimes.
71 percent of respondent voters said they believe tech companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google should be required to give the government access to the personal data of users in the name of national security. In a question that likely spawned from the battle between Apple and the Department of Justice, 76 percent of respondents think the aforementioned companies, and others, should “help government investigations related to terrorism” and “monitor accounts of people already suspected of being terrorists.” Additionally, two-thirds of respondents believe the aforementioned companies should turn personal data over to the government for the latter to assess those accounts to potentially identify users who may be terrorists.
Last week’s attacks in Brussels appear to be on the minds of many of the respondents. Nearly half of the respondents stated they had heard “a lot” about the attacks, compared to only 19 percent who haven’t heard much (if anything) about them. The terrorist attacks in Brussels, presumably, are why questions pertaining to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) appeared on the survey. 78 percent of respondents answered that they support placing gatekeepers outside of airports to provide an additional layer of security before potential patrons even enter the building. 75 percent support increasing TSA funding and 84 percent support increasing the amount of training TSA agents receive. Similarly, 81 percent support increasing the amount of federal funding used for background checks of airport employees, including luggage handlers, cargo loaders, and flight attendants and 76 percent of respondents noted they support increasing federal funding for purposes of perimeter security at airports, such as regular patrols and higher fences.
This poll is amazing, in the sense that its results lay naked sentiments some of us claim not to have. Over half of the 2,000+ polled support closing the United States off to certain people on the basis of religious identity, including more than one-third of respondents who identify as Democrats. Nearly half of respondents support increased police presence in Muslim neighborhoods, again, on the basis of religious identity, and again, including over 1-in-3 respondents who identify as Democrats. Nearly half of respondents expressed support for committing acts historically categorized as war crimes on the basis of religious identity. A staggering 3-in-4 respondents are so distraught over last week’s events in Brussels, they support a practical militarization of United States airports.
To make matters even worse, these discriminatory and overtly paranoid sentiments exist toward a group of people who worship a different form of “God” because they worship a different form of “God,” despite the fact that United States citizens are seven times more likely to be killed by a right-wing extremist (of which there is an 8-in-10 chance that extremist is a Christian) than a Muslim terrorist. Yet, nothing is done to combat domestic terrorism, save for enabling more domestic terrorism. These right-wing extremists are more likely to throw political support toward a far-right figure who expresses views that coincide with their own — a Trump, a Cruz, a Rubio, a Huckabee. These figures, and others like them, have almost unilaterally contributed to the rhetoric that has placed words like “jihadists,” “radical Islam,” “Islamic terrorism,” and “Sharia law” firmly in the modern cultural vernacular of the United States.
See the cycle here?
This is how these views continue to exist and continue to be promoted within a culture that is still so wounded by events from almost 15 years ago, common sense and reason — immune responses to hysterical, irrational attitudes — have been compromised by the infection of Islamophobia. The results of this poll show that attitudes about national security in the United States can be best summed up as “fuck sovereignty and make sure we keep the brown people out.”
But most egregiously, these sentiments exist, on a comparatively large scale, among a group of people whose political identity, on the whole, defies these ideas. As frustrating as it is, it’s not shocking to see this kind of ignorant, “hostile isolationist” reaction from run-of-the-mill conservatives and Republicans, but to see it in liberals and Democrats — whose social politics revolve around civil rights, altruism, and progressivism — is especially disappointing and painful.
Perhaps what we’ve spent 15 years actively trying to fight off is happening despite our efforts. Perhaps the terrorists are winning, after all.
Featured image by dbking, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
[H/T ThinkProgress]
