Paleologos: Voters divided by party in views on Biden legitimacy and our country's biggest challenges

Nearly one year into his presidency, 70% of Republicans maintain that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected President of the United States, while 22% concede that he was. Those results are according to the most recent exclusive Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll of U.S. registered voters. Meanwhile, 96% of Democrats believe Biden was duly elected. In January, those statistics were nearly identical—nothing has changed.

The table below with results from the poll highlights that Joe Biden’s legitimacy is not the only point of partisan contention. Republican and Democratic registered voters have entirely different views on what the biggest challenges for the country have been over the last 20 years. Democrats’ low historical ranking of the 9/11 attacks was likely underscored by their opinion that domestic terrorism is a much more serious challenge to our security today than foreign terrorism (81-13). Meanwhile, Republicans saw foreign terrorism as being more challenging (53-40).

Did 9/11 permanently change life in the U.S.? More Americans think so more than ever before.

The poll not only asked respondents about the past, but the future as well. Yet again, responses sharply diverged along party lines. In general, Republicans are much more fearful of Afghanistan harboring terrorists targeting the United States and have much lower confidence in the U.S. government’s ability to defend against acts of terrorism. On post-war Afghanistan, Democrats are split on whether Afghanistan will be a haven for terrorists targeting the U.S. (53% yes, 47% no/don’t know), while Republicans are totally convinced that Afghanistan will be a terrorist incubator (92% yes, 9% no/don’t know). On whether the U.S. government can protect its citizens from future acts of terrorism, 79% of Democrats have “a great deal/fair amount of confidence”, while 74% of Republicans have “not very much confidence/no confidence at all.”

The data points of conservative Americans appear rooted in the disdain for and lack of trust in Washington D.C., and any information coming from inside the Beltway is being filtered through the lens that former President Trump lost re-election because of the devastation of COVID-19 and its impact on the 2020 electoral system. One wonders if many of the conservative vaccine holdouts feel that getting the shot is tantamount to surrendering to DC and a concession to the legitimacy of the current administration.

According to the CDC, 22 of the 25 states with the worst vaccination rates are states Donald Trump won. These are states where the full vaccination rates are below 50%, as of September 1st. That could be coincidence, but people in these states are displaying telling statistics. But Republicans have to be concerned about the politics in states that Trump only won by a handful of percentage points; states like Florida, North Carolina, and even Texas. In those states COVID deaths of vaccine holdouts could have a direct impact on the 2024 outcomes, swinging states from red to blue.

The question is: how does Biden save the lives of people hell bent on voting him out in 2024?

But this president must save their lives and the lives of everyone else, regardless of party. As the Delta variant accelerates its intensity this fall like an unstoppable hurricane, I have a novel suggestion for President Joe Biden: Before this COVID storm morphs into a Category 5, consider appealing to the political instincts of those Republicans who are holding out on getting the vaccine. Something like this:

“I have a message for every conservative Republican in America. If you want to give yourselves the best shot at beating me in 2024, get the shot. If you really care about beating a Democrat in 2024, get the shot. I challenge you. Don’t make 2024 that easy for me.”

It could be a win-win all around and paves a much-needed path to herd immunity. And what better motivation for a frustrated conservative vaccine holdout than to defeat a Democratic President at the ballot box?

The fact is that Democratic votes would be boosted by a pandemic in 2024 or 2022. It’s not in the political interest of Republicans for COVID-19 to be around next year. Otherwise, bring on the flood of mail-in ballots. In 2020, Democrats ran up huge mail-in margins in Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Phoenix thus tipping all those key states.

Who knows, Biden’s potential gamble may beat offering cash for a shot, vaxports to travel, or exclusive threats from offices, schools, and businesses to exclude the communities currently not vaccinated. In the meantime, lives – of all political parties – would be saved.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paleologos: Poll shows partisan split on Biden legitimacy, more issues