Sunday subscribers-only thread for May 23, 2021

Happy Sunday!

We are nearly five months from the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol and there are no signs public opinion on the matter is improving. Republican elites' continued endorsement of the "big lie" that Joe Biden stole the election, demonstrated by the party's removal of Liz Cheney from her position as the party's House chair last week, has kept GOP voters' disbelief in Donald Trump's loss steady and high. A new Ipsos/Reuters poll this week found that only 25% of Republicans think the 2020 election was legitimate and accurate. Fifty-three percent say Trump is the current president of the United States. 

Meanwhile, polling from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that nearly 90% of Republicans who watch Fox News tend to believe the same thing. 

This is, of course, unsurprising. We know from research on how people form their attitudes that voters adopt many of the views of their social circles and opinion leaders. This dynamic is even stronger when someone is already motivated to hold or accept that belief. So long as GOP politicians, especially Donald Trump, and right-leaning news networks continue to spread conspiracy theories about the outcome, voters will be less reality-based than if they had good-faith leadership. 

These polls remind us that self-government relies on a foundation of shared truths. So even though the prevalence of fraud conspiracies on the right is unsurprising, it is worth continually evaluating. The good news here is that the majority of the public believes in the truth of the riot.

What do you think is the path forward?