People from across the ideological spectrum are condemning Arizona’s new immigration statute. Few GOP leaders have endorsed it and it has been condemned by religious leaders and newspaper editorial boards across the country
But according to a recent poll, the public narrowly supports it.
Americans familiar with Arizona’s tough, new immigration law tend to favor it, a new poll found.
51 percent of those who have heard of Arizona’s new law to crack down illegal immigration said they generally favor it, a new Gallup Poll found Thursday. 39 of those who have heard of the law opposed it, while 11 percent were unsure.
Steve Benen is surprised:
I find this very hard to believe, not because Gallup is unreliable, but because I like to think the American character is decent and strong, and would resist efforts like these.
But frankly, this doesn’t surprise me at all. It is in fact an accurate reflection of the United States at this point in its history—bigoted, selfish, angry, and looking for scapegoats. Recall that this is a public that put a selfish, deceitful moron in the White House for eight years. This is a public that was excited beyond measure at bombing the hell out of a weak, largely irrelevant country that had done nothing provocative. This is a country that still denies consenting adults the right to marry, and will vote to shred our educational system in order to hang on to a few dollars every year that would otherwise go to taxes.
We are a deeply conservative country with a powerful authoritarian streak and one election will not change that.
