Legitimate protest for me but not for thee
A growing number of Americans don’t believe what happened happened on Jan. 6, 2021. A Monmouth poll indicates many of those who did accept what their eyes told them then remember the day differently now (Washington Post):
The poll asked people in June 2021 and June 2022 whether each of those labels were appropriate descriptors for what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021. And the GOP shifts are pretty uniform:
- While 33 percent of Republicans said in June 2021 that Jan. 6 was an insurrection, that number is now just 13 percent.
- While 62 percent of Republicans called it a “riot” back then, that’s down to 45 percent.
- While 47 percent said it was a “legitimate protest,” that’s now up to 61 percent.
So whereas more Republicans once said it was a “riot” than a “legitimate protest,” by a 15-point margin, that has been flipped, with Republicans favoring the “legitimate protest” label by 16 points. A majority of Republicans no longer even regard Jan. 6 as a “riot.”
And that’s to say nothing of the fact that, yes, it was an insurrection. But at least in that case, the doubters might not truly understand what that word means or might have been fed dubious and incorrect definitions by their favorite cable-news hosts and pundits. (By contrast, people know what a riot is.)
OTOH, they likely find this protest illegitimate and an outrage:
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