The U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans the right to peaceably assemble. But how do Americans feel about people exercising this right when the assembly is protesting a possible war sanctioned by a relatively popular presidential administration? The results of the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll* indicate that a majority of Americans feel it is OK for anti-war demonstrators to protest against possible U.S. military action in Iraq. Further, most Americans say they think a "strong moral opposition" motivates the protesters, rather than a knee-jerk tendency to "blame America first."
Agreement vs. Allowance
The survey asked respondents to choose one of four categories to describe their views on anti-war demonstrations: "you agree with the protesters' views and think it is OK for them to protest"; "you agree with their views but do not think they should be protesting"; "you disagree with their views but think it is OK for them to protest"; or "you disagree with the protesters' views and do not think they should be protesting." Americans' most common response, given by 42%, was that they disagree with the protesters, but think it's OK for them to be protesting, while another 28% say they agree and that protesting is OK. Only 26% of Americans do not think it's OK for the protesters to be protesting. Among that group, 16% disagree with the protesters' points of view, while 10% agree.
That adds up to 70% of Americans saying it's OK to protest possible military action against Iraq, and 26% who don't think it's OK. Meanwhile, a majority of Americans -- 58% -- do not agree with the protesters' anti-war sentiments, while 38% say they do agree.
Partisanship is a major factor in respondents' likelihood to
agree or disagree with the protesters' views, but does not appear
to be related to their likelihood to believe protesting is OK.
Among Republicans, just 8% agree with the protesters' views
and think it's OK for them to protest (compared to 48% of
Democrats who feel this way), while 61% of Republicans
disagree with the protesters' views but think it's OK for
them to protest (compared to 23% of Democrats).
The oldest Americans and those with the least amount of education
are the two demographic groups most likely to disagree with the
protesters' views and feel that they should not be
protesting. Specifically, a third of Americans aged 65 and older
(33%) hold this view -- more than double the percentage of any
other age group. Twenty-two percent of Americans with a high school
education or less disagree with the protesters and think that
anti-war protests are not OK. Only 5% of those with postgraduate
degrees share this view.
A Question of Motivation
Americans were also asked to assess the protesters' motivations. Overall, more than half of Americans (55%) think the protesters are motivated by a "strong moral opposition" to war, while just over a third (36%) think the protesters are just the "kind of people who blame America first."
Again, political partisanship, education, and age are significant variables. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the protesters are the kind of people who "blame America first," 47% to 28%. Forty-one percent of Americans with a high school education or less feel this way; this percentage decreases as respondents' educational level increases. Forty-five percent of Americans aged 65 and older think the protesters are motivated by an arbitrary need to blame America, while just one-third of those in other age groups think so.
*Results from telephone interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 23-25, 2003. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3%.
