Do You Think We Are A Banana Republic?: A Large Majority of Americans Think So After Trump Indictment

Rasmussen Reports, a polling company, yesterday released the results of one of its polls where 64 percent of American voters agreed that the use of the law against a political opponent made America a banana republic, and 55 percent of voters thought that the charging of former president Trump was bad for America. Rasmussen Reports’s Twitter channel wrote “Banana Republic: A stunning 64% of voters say yes……including 48% of Democrats. That’s while only 29% of voters think @ManhattanDA’s indictment of Trump will make his candidacy less likely.”

Banana Republic:
A stunning 64% of voters say yes…

…including 48% of Democrats.

That's while only 29% of voters think @ManhattanDA 's indictment of Trump will make his candidacy less likely.

Subscribe and comment at Youtube:https://t.co/rOIhNxNn7p@JoeBiden @realLizUSA… pic.twitter.com/JaF4AIea7L

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) April 10, 2023

Attached to that shocking tweet was a video of Mark Mitchell, head pollster of Rasmussen Reports, giving a breakdown of the poll, which surveyed 957 likely US voters from April 4-6 with a margin of error of 3 percent.

The video began with a preview of a flag of the United States with a big banana where the stars should be. Mr. Mitchell narrated that “You should probably go ahead and get used to this flag because it seems like it is the new standard of our republic…an astounding portion of American voters think we have reached banana republic levels of political weaponization.”

Mr. Mitchell went over the demographics of the 55 percent of voters who think Trump’s indictment is a bad development for the country. He noted that “18 to 39-year-olds are basically split [between thinking it is good versus bad]” while older voters are equally highly appalled by this development. Most Republicans (70 percent) and Independents (63 percent) think it is bad for America while about 1/3rd of Democrats think so. On that 1/3rd figure, Mr. Mitchell commented “that is not a new development. Even as far back as a year ago about a third of Democrats also supported Biden’s impeachment.”

Mr. Mitchell also noted that black and white voters were basically in agreement that this development was bad for the country. He revealed unsurprisingly that those who strongly approved of Biden highly supported this development whereas those who strongly disapproved of Biden were very highly to think that this was a bad development.

Liberal Legal Analysts Are Outraged By Bragg’s Weak Trump Indictment, Says It Hurts Other Attempts to Get Trump

The poll also asked if people thought the prosecution would help Trump in the 2024 Republican primary. A plurality- 42 percent- thought it would make his nomination more likely whereas only 29 thought it would make it less likely. Again by demographics about one-third of Democrats thought this development made it more likely Trump would carry the nomination. Mitchell stated that “if these charges were intended as a way to keep Trump from being the candidate, clearly Democrats are not very confident right now that it is going to play out that way.”

By contrast, 55 percent of Republicans think this will make it more likely Trump will be the nominee with only 18 percent saying less likely according to Mr. Mitchell.

The poll also covers whether voters agreed with the following quote from Francey Hakes: “[t]his [Trump’s potential arrest] is a really serious time because this is Banana Republic sort of stuff. Using the law as a weapon against a political opponent is so wrong.” 64 percent of voters agreed on some level with that quote compared to 28 percent disagreeing on some level. 48 percent of voters strongly agreed. Mitchell summed up the demographic unanimity on this point by saying “Majorities of gender, age, and race all agree roughly equally.” He noted, however, that 46 percent of Democrats agreed on some level with the quote compared to 86 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of Independents.

Mr. Hakes is not the only legal expert who uttered that the country was becoming a Banana Republic. Alan Dershowitz too remarked on the occasion of Trump’s indictment that “it is Banana Republic time.”