- A new study based on interviews with hundreds of protesters at recent demonstrations in multiple cities found nearly total opposition to President
Donald Trump and strong support for former Vice PresidentJoe Biden . - To the surprise of one of the study's coordinators, sociologist Dana Fisher, every respondent said they would support Biden in the 2020 election.
- The findings show how the demonstrations against police violence against Black Americans have transformed into an anti-Trump movement.
- The president has done little more than tweet in response to the demands of protesters.
- The study also showed white people made up a majority of participants across all protest events.
Researchers studying the massive protests catalyzed by the brutal death of
"I never have a survey question where every single person answers the same way," Dana Fisher, a University of Maryland sociologist who specializes in researching activism, told Insider. Fisher coordinated the study alongside University of Michigan political scientist Michael Heaney.
Respondents in the US (255 in total) were asked if they would vote for Biden, Trump, or neither of these candidates. Every person questioned said they would support Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. These were people on the street, not necessarily registered voters, but the results — and the fact that none of those who responded cited a third-party candidate or said they wouldn't vote at all — still shocked Fisher.
"Of those who responded to this question, 100% reported that they would be supporting Joe Biden in the election. ZERO respondents said that they would support Donald Trump or opt not to vote in the election," the researchers said of their findings.
The findings show how the protests against police brutality and racism have transformed into an anti-Trump movement. The president has done little to nothing to address the demands of protesters, and earlier this month, he threatened to deploy combat troops to counter unrest without the request of state governors (whom he lambasted as "a bunch of jerks"). Meanwhile, peaceful protesters were recently subjected to tear gas by law enforcement in Washington to pave the way for a Trump photo op.
The researchers, who collected data at weekend protests on June 6 and 7 in Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, and London, interviewed hundreds of people. (They also collected data at a separate demonstration in Washington on June 4.)
It's the first data of its kind available on the protests spurred by the killing of Floyd.
Most white Americans now say racism is a 'big problem' in their country
The study found that people consistently reported being motivated to participate in the protests because of issues regarding police brutality, racial justice, and equity. But the findings also showed that Trump was a key factor in motivating people to take to the streets. In Washington over the weekend, for example, 45% of respondents cited Trump as their motivation for participating in the demonstrations.
The president, who has a well-documented record of racist statements, took a negative tone toward protesters even before he took office. Though the recent protests over police brutality have largely been peaceful, Trump has focused heavily on instances of violence, rioting, and looting. He's blamed these incidents on antifa, a loosely affiliated group of left-wing anti-fascist activists. But there's little evidence to support this.
The protests, which some have characterized as a "revolution," have already inspired congressional lawmakers to put forward policy proposals directed at reforming policing in the US. Localities have moved to defund and even disband police forces. Polling has shown that most Americans support the protests and indicated a seismic shift in the perception of the pervasiveness of racism in the US. Multiple polls have shown that a strong majority of white Americans respondents now say racism is a "big problem" in their country.
Fisher and Heaney's study found that white people made up a majority of participants across all protest events. In the nation's capital over the weekend, 65% of the respondents were white. Similarly, 61% of the respondents in New York City were white, as were 53% of the respondents in Los Angeles.
Protesters are extremely dissatisfied with the state of democracy
Earlier this month, peaceful protesters were violently dispersed by law enforcement outside the White House to clear a path for Trump to take a photo with a Bible at a nearby church. Trump was widely condemned over the incident, which drew comparisons to the tactics of authoritarian regimes and warnings from experts on the erosion of democratic norms under the president.
Based on the findings of this new study, people participating in the recent protests are extremely dissatisfied with the state of democracy. Just 4% of the respondents in Washington said they were "satisfied with democracy," which Fisher said represented a drastic decline from views expressed by respondents questioned during previous demonstrations. At the March for Racial Justice in Washington in September 2017, for example, 28% of respondents expressed satisfaction with the state of democracy.
Respondents were also asked whether they believed some level of violence was justified in the pursuit of political goals. In Washington, 65% said they believed it was justified. Sixty-nine percent said the same in New York City, along with 58% in Los Angeles. Comparatively, just 41% of respondents in Washington in September 2017 said some level violence was justified in the pursuit of political goals. This suggests there could be a correlation between politically inspired violence and dissatisfaction with democracy.
"If voting, running for office, and demonstrating do not work, some people may think that violence is the only way to be heard," Heaney wrote in a recent blog post. "Challengers may reason that power-holders will pay attention to burning buildings, thus forcing concessions from them."
'We are already starting to see policy change'
Separate from Fisher and Heaney's work, University of Connecticut political scientist Jeremy Pressman and his colleague Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard, have been tracking protests in the Trump era and documenting their size and scope.
Pressman told Insider the US was experiencing a "watershed moment."
"The
The protests are "large, sustained, broad in geographic scope and local," Pressman said, and that's "very important," with the related demonstrations in all 50 states, the nation's capital, and the US territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.
"In combing through social media, I've seen variations of, 'We've never had a protest this big here,' or, 'We never have protests,' many times. All over the place, even in right-leaning states," Pressman added. "I'd also note the frequency. In many places, these are sustained protests."
The protests have been so large that Pressman and his colleagues are still processing reports on their size, and he was unable to offer specific size estimates. But he did note that it was possible the June 6 protest in Washington was the largest, as up to 200,000 people attended, according to officials' estimates, Politico reported.
'This isn't going away'
With Fisher's findings suggesting about one-fifth of the participants at the Washington and New York City events were first-time protesters, and over one-quarter of respondents in Los Angeles saying the same, it seems there's a lot of new energy behind this movement and that the demonstrations will not end in the near future. But there could also be a decline in the days to come because of the response from politicians and the fact the protests appear to be working.
"I predict that we're going to see a dip now, just because we do see some progress," Fisher said, adding that it's tough to sustain protests of this size in hot summer weather.
But Fisher said there have also been calls for a big protest on the National Mall on Juneteenth (June 19 — a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the US), and there is an effort in New York City to mobilize 1 million people for the same day.
"This isn't going away," Fisher said, adding that people appear to be transitioning away from spontaneous protests in multiple locations in the same city, and they're moving toward a traditional format that involves more organization, fostering larger turnout. Fisher said the US would likely continue to see protests of this variety up until Election Day.