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Roughly 3 in 4 American adults believe the upcoming presidential election is vital to the future of U.S. democracy<\/a>, although which candidate they think poses the greater threat depends on their political leanings, according to a new poll.<\/p>\n The survey from The\u00a0Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>\u00a0finds that most Democrats, Republicans and independents see the election as \u201cvery important\u201d or \u201cextremely important\u201d to democracy, while Democrats have a higher level of intensity about the issue. More than half of Democrats say the November election is \u201cextremely important\u201d to the future of U.S. democracy, compared to about 4 in 10 independents and Republicans.<\/p>\n Democrat Pamela Hanson, 67, of Amery, Wisconsin, said she has grave concerns for the future of democracy in the country if Republican presidential nominee\u00a0Donald Trump gets elected<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHis statements tend towards him being a king or a dictator, a person in charge by himself,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cI mean, the man is unhinged in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n But Republican Ernie Wagner from Liberty, New York, said it\u2019s President Joe Biden\u2019s administration \u2014 of which Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is a part \u2014 that has abused the power of the executive branch.<\/p>\n \u201cBiden has tried to erase the student loans, and he\u2019s been told by the courts that it\u2019s unconstitutional to do that,\u201d said Wagner, 85. \u201cHe\u2019s weaponized the FBI to get at his political opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n The poll findings suggest that many Democrats continue to view Trump as a threat to democracy after he tried to\u00a0overturn the results<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a02020 election<\/a>, embraced the rioters who\u00a0attacked the U.S. Capitol<\/a>\u00a0on Jan. 6, 2021, and threatened to\u00a0seek retribution<\/a>\u00a0against his opponents if he wins reelection.<\/p>\n But they also indicate that many of Trump\u2019s supporters agree with him that Biden is the real threat to democracy. Trump and\u00a0his allies<\/a>\u00a0have accused Biden of weaponizing\u00a0the Justice Department<\/a>\u00a0as it has pursued charges against the former president over his effort\u00a0to halt certification<\/a>\u00a0of the 2020 election and keeping classified documents, though there is no evidence Biden has had any involvement or influence\u00a0in the cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump has framed himself as a defender of American values and portrayed Biden as a\u00a0\u201cdestroyer\u201d<\/a>\u00a0of democracy. He said multiple times after he survived\u00a0an assassination attempt<\/a>\u00a0last month that he \u201ctook a bullet for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n The poll, conducted in the days\u00a0after Biden dropped out<\/a>\u00a0of the race and Harris announced her campaign, is an early glimpse of Americans\u2019 views of a reshaped contest.<\/p>\n Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say democracy could be at risk in this election depending on who wins the presidency, responses generally in line with the findings when the question was last asked in\u00a0an AP-NORC poll in December 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hanson, the Wisconsin Democrat, said she worries Trump in a second term would use the\u00a0conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0to overrule important freedoms. She also is concerned that he would fill his Cabinet with loyalists who don\u2019t care about the well-being of everyone in the country and defund agencies that regulate key functions of society.<\/p>\n But Wagner, the New York Republican, brushed off those concerns and pointed to Trump\u2019s time in office.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he was in the White House, we had peace, we had prosperity, we had energy independence,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s undemocratic about that?\u201d<\/p>\n He said he didn\u2019t think Trump\u2019s intentions leading up to and on Jan. 6 were criminal.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think he was misguided,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n Some independents also are carefully considering the stakes of the upcoming election on the country\u2019s democratic future.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that this is the most important election of my lifetime,\u201d said 53-year-old Patricia Seliga-Williams of LaVale, Maryland, an independent who is leaning toward voting for Harris.<\/p>\n Seliga-Williams said she\u2019s barely scraping by on $15 an hour as a hotel breakfast attendant and remembers Trump handling the economy and immigration well. But she didn\u2019t like it when he recently quipped that he plans to be\u00a0a \u201cdictator\u201d on day one<\/a>\u00a0in office.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know Donald Trump could run the country,\u201d she said. \u201cBut he\u2019s just too aggressive anymore, and I don\u2019t think I can trust that as a voter.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone agrees that this year\u2019s presidential election will be an inflection point for the country\u2019s democracy, offering starkly different reasons, according to the AP-NORC poll. About 2 in 10 Americans say democracy in the U.S. is strong enough to withstand the outcome of the election no matter who wins, while another 2 in 10 believe democracy is already so seriously broken that the outcome doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n The poll also shows the\u00a0stakes of democracy<\/a>\u00a0in the election are felt more by older adults rather than younger ones. About half of adults 45 and older say the outcome of the election is extremely important for the future of democracy, compared to about 4 in 10 adults under 45.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking the claim that the other candidate is trying to destroy democracy, it doesn\u2019t really land for me,\u201d said Daniel Oliver, 26, an independent from suburban Detroit. \u201cI think that we have things in place that should safeguard against when you kind of play at destroying democracy. We have other branches of government. We have people that believe in voting. So, it would be hard for a candidate to take over and become some kind of dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he\u2019ll be looking for candidates to talk about issues he\u2019s more interested in, such as reducing inflation and investing in clean energy sources.<\/p>\n Biden<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Trump<\/a>\u00a0spent months sparring over whose second term would be worse for democracy. The president nodded to the consequences when he ended his campaign last month, saying in his Oval Office address that \u201cthe defense of democracy is more important than any title.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris has focused more on the concept of \u201cfreedom\u201d in the early days of her campaign. She has said Trump\u2019s reelection could result in Americans losing the\u00a0freedom to vote<\/a>, the freedom to be\u00a0safe from gun violence<\/a>\u00a0and the freedom for\u00a0women to make decisions<\/a>\u00a0about their own bodies. Her debut campaign ad last month was set to Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s 2016 track \u201cFreedom,\u201d and it has become a campaign anthem for her at rallies ever since.<\/p>\n Harris didn\u2019t mention democracy in her first two presidential campaign rallies, but she returned to the topic in remarks to Sigma Gamma Rho sorority members in Houston last week, saying \u201cour fundamental freedoms are on the ballot, and so is our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n