(2016-01-17) Trump Supporters Authoritarian

The best predictor of whether someone is a Donald Trump supporter is how Authoritarian they are. 49 percent of likely Republican primary voters I surveyed score in the top quarter of the authoritarian scale—more than twice as many as Democratic voters. My poll asked a set of four simple survey questions that political scientists have employed since 1992 to measure inclination toward authoritarianism. These questions pertain to child-rearing: whether it is more important for the voter to have a child who is respectful or independent; obedient or self-reliant; well-behaved or considerate; and well-mannered or curious. Respondents who pick the first option in each of these questions are strongly authoritarian. (They should poll teachers about their students this way.) Take activated authoritarians from across the partisan spectrum and the growing cadre of threatened (scared of Terrorism) non-authoritarians, then add them to the base of Republican general election voters, and the potential electoral path to a Trump presidency becomes clearer.