OF COURSE ETHNO-NATIONALSTS DON'T WANT COLOREDS VOTING:

 Co-written by Lee Drutman, Larry Diamond and Joe Goldman, it is one of a continuing series of reports produced by the Voter Study Group. (Disclosure: I am the research director of the Voter Study Group.) In this report, based on a July survey with 5,000 Americans, four key findings stand out:

1) Support for democracy is actually higher in this survey than several earlier surveys.

Compared with surveys in the 1990s and 2000s, the percentage of Americans who say that "a strong leader who does not have to bother with Congress and elections" is a "fairly" or "very good" way of governing the country has declined. The percentage who say that "having the army rule" is good was similar to 2011. The percentage who say that a "democratic" political system is fairly or very bad has also declined slightly. [...]

3) Shaky support for democracy is more visible among conservatives.

In the report, a willingness to consider a "strong leader" system or put less priority on democracy is more visible among self-identified conservatives -- and particularly among those who express conservative views on social and racial issues. Indeed, support for anti-democratic political systems is especially strong among those who think that being white and European is important to American identity.

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