Most Republicans in a January 2020 survey agreed that “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” More than 40% agreed that “a time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.” (In both cases, most of the rest said they were unsure; only one in four or five disagreed.) I use 127 survey items to measure six potential bases of these and other antidemocratic sentiments: partisan affect, enthusiasm for President Trump, political cynicism, economic conservatism, cultural conservatism, and ethnic antagonism. The strongest predictor by far, for the Republican rank-and-file as a whole and for a variety of subgroups defined by education, locale, sex, and political attitudes, is ethnic antagonism—especially concerns about the political power and claims on government resources of immigrants, African-Americans, and Latinos. The corrosive impact of ethnic antagonism on Republicans’ commitment to democracy underlines the significance of ethnic conflict in contemporary US politics.

大多数共和党人在2020年1月的调查中都同意“美国传统生活方式正在迅速消失，以至于我们可能不得不使用武力来拯救它。” 超过40％的人同意“爱国的美国人必须将法律掌握在自己手中的时刻到来。” （在两种情况下，其余大多数人都表示不确定；只有四分之五的人不同意。）我使用127个调查项目来衡量这些和其他反民主情绪的六个潜在基础：党派影响，对特朗普总统的热情，政治犬儒主义，经济保守主义，文化保守主义和种族对抗。迄今为止，对于共和党的整体排名和针对教育，地区，性别和政治态度所定义的各个子群体而言，这是最强有力的预测指标，是种族对抗，尤其是对移民，非裔美国人和拉丁美洲人的政治权力和对政府资源的要求的关注。种族对抗对共和党人对民主承诺的腐蚀影响，突显了种族冲突在当代美国政治中的重要性。