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   Just how racist is the MAGA movement? This survey measures it.   
   4 min   
   A Trump supporter holds a Confederate flag outside the Senate chamber after   
   rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty   
   Images)   
   By Jennifer Rubin   
   September 28, 2022 at 7:45 a.m. EDT   
      
   It has long been understood that the MAGA movement is heavily dependent on   
   White grievance and straight-up racism. (Hence Donald Trump’s refusal to   
   disavow racist groups and his statement that there were “very fine people   
   on both sides” in the violent clashes at the white-supremacist rally in   
   Charlottesville.)   
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   Now, we have numbers to prove it.   
      
   The connection between racism and the right-wing movement is apparent in a   
   new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute. The survey asked   
   respondents about 11 statements designed to probe views on racism. For   
   example: “White Americans today are not responsible for discrimination   
   against Black people in the past.” The pollsters then used their answers to   
   quantify a “structural racism index,” which provides a general score from   
   zero to 1 measuring a person’s attitudes on “white supremacy and racial   
   inequality, the impact of discrimination on African American economic   
   mobility, the treatment of African Americans in the criminal justice   
   system, general perceptions of race, and whether racism is still   
   significant problem today.” Higher scores indicate a more receptive   
   attitude to racist beliefs.   
      
   The results shouldn’t surprise anyone paying attention to the MAGA crowd’s   
   rhetoric and veneration of the Confederacy. “Among all Americans, the   
   median value on the structural racism index is 0.45, near the center of the   
   scale,” the poll found. “The median score on the structural racism index   
   for Republicans is 0.67, compared with 0.45 for independents and 0.27 for   
   Democrats.” Put differently, Republicans are much more likely to buy into   
   the notion that Whites are victims.   
      
   The poll also found that the religious group that makes up the core of   
   today’s GOP and MAGA movement has the highest structural racism measure   
   among the demographics it surveyed: “White evangelical Protestants have the   
   highest median score, at 0.64, while Latter-day Saints, white Catholics,   
   and white mainline Protestants each have a median of 0.55. By contrast,   
   religiously unaffiliated white Americans score 0.33.” This is true even   
   though Whites report far less discrimination toward them than racial   
   minorities do.   
      
   The survey also captured just how popular the “Lost Cause” to rewrite the   
   history of the Civil War and downplay or ignore the evil of slavery is on   
   the right: “Republicans overwhelmingly back efforts to preserve the legacy   
   of the Confederacy (85%), compared with less than half of independents   
   (46%) and only one in four Democrats (26%). The contrast between white   
   Republicans and white Democrats is stark. Nearly nine in 10 white   
   Republicans (87%), compared with 23% of white Democrats, support efforts to   
   preserve the legacy of the Confederacy.”   
      
   Americans who fully support reforming Confederate monuments have a much   
   lower structural racism index score, while those who oppose it have a much   
   higher score. The same is true when it comes to renaming schools honoring   
   individuals who supported slavery and racial discrimination or changing   
   racist mascots.   
      
   Those who want to keep Confederate monuments and offensive mascots in place   
   might deny that their views have anything to do with bigotry, but then   
   again, they often deny the legacy of racism and paint Whites as victims,   
   too. In general, MAGA forces have one goal when they amplify “replacement   
   theory” or fuss over corporations promoting inclusivity: to maximize White   
   anger and resentment.   
      
   Robert P. Jones, who leads PRRI, tells me, “While this result may seem   
   surprising or even shocking to many White Christians, it is because we do   
   not know our own history. If we take a clear-eyed look at our history, we   
   see a widespread, centuries-long Christian defense of white supremacy.” He   
   adds, “For example, every major Protestant Christian denomination split   
   over the issue of slavery in the Civil War, with Methodists, Episcopalians,   
   Presbyterians, and Baptists in the South all breaking fellowship with their   
   Northern brethren.” Given that history, Jones says, “it’s hardly a surprise   
   that a denial of systemic racism is a defining feature of White   
   evangelicalism today.”   
      
   The PRRI poll shows the MAGA movement has done a solid job convincing the   
   core of the GOP base that they are victims. And let’s be clear: An   
   aggrieved electoral minority that believes it has been victimized and is   
   ready to deploy violence is a serious threat to an inclusive democracy.   
      
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