Over 20% of Hispanic Catholics Would Support Political Violence to "Save the Country"

A little over half of Hispanic Catholics support the notion that, "because things have gotten so far off track in this country, we need a leader who is willing to break some rules if that's what it takes to set things right."

They are the religious group with the largest amount of support for this notion, according to a new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute. The study went over a wide variety of subjects, ranging from religious groups' views about migration to the viability of using political violence to "save the country."

Regarding this latter topic, over 20% of Hispanic Catholics agreed with the following statement: "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."

In this case, they were not the demographic with the highest level of support for these eventual actions: 31% of white evangelical Protestants, along with 25% of white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants, 24% of Black Protestants, 23% of non-Christians, 23% of religiously unaffiliated Americans said they would favor political violence for this purpose.

At a partisan level, the figure was much higher among Republicans: concretely, 33% of respondents believe that "true American patriots" may have to resort to violence to save el country, compared to 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats.

However, the overall amount of respondents who supported the statement, 23%, increased across the board. In 2021, 28% of Republicans and 7% of Democrats held this belief, the general figure being 15%.

The study also shows that Republicans who have favorable views of Trump (41%) are nearly three times as likely as Republicans who have unfavorable views of Trump (16%) to agree that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.

The answers are in line with a practically generalized vision that the U.S. is going in the wrong direction. Most respondents, regardless of religious affiliation, held this belief, according to the study: "92% of white evangelical Protestants, 82% of white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants, 79% of white Catholics, 75% of religiously unaffiliated Americans, and two-thirds of Black Protestants (68%), non-Christian religious Americans (66%), and Hispanic Catholics (64%)."

Without taking religion into account, most Hispanics also had a negative vision about the change in the country's culture, with 58% saying it has mostly done so for the worse. Moreover, 51% said that the U.S.'s best days are behind.

With regards to presidential candidates, 48% of Hispanics approved of Joe Biden's performance in office. That compares with 62% of Black Americans and 32% of White Americans.

However, a larger amount within this demographic believes that a Donald Trump reelection poses a threat to American democracy, with 67% of respondents answering positively to this question. 52% said that a Biden reelection would pose a danger to democracy.

The study also asked about migration and whether a candidate's views could affect respondents' votes. Here, 32% of Americans stated they would only vote for someone who shared their views. There was no ethnic or religious lowdown in this category.