A chart accompanying the post revealed support for the idea is notably higher among Republicans (53%) than Democrats (18%), and is especially high among those who trust far-right media sources (67%) and those who believe conspiracy theories associated with the QAnon movement (65%).
Jones also pointed to one especially unsettling trends among those who completely or mostly agree that the U.S. was singled out by the divine: most (55%) believe the “replacement theory” idea that immigrants are invading the U.S. and “replacing our cultural and ethnic background.”
The so-called great replacement theory is popular among white nationalists, including racists who chanted slogans linked to the idea during the 2017 clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Anti-Defamation League has also argued men who carried out recent mass shootings in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, a synagogue in Pittsburgh and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, all appeared to either express sentiment similar to the theory or reference it outright in online manifestos.
Yet the theory is now pushed by more mainstream conservative voices, particularly Fox News host Tucker Carlson. He referenced the theory by name during a September episode of his show and accused the Biden administration of trying to use immigration “to change the racial mix of the country.”
In the PRRI survey, most Americans who trust Fox News (52%) agreed that God intended America to be a new promised land.
The margin of error for the overall survey is +/- 1.86 percentage points.
This article originally appeared here.
