Friday, November 20, 2015

Dem Majority: U.S. at War with Radical Islam

An ABC News/Washington Post poll, conducted since the Paris attacks, looks at Americans' attitudes toward admitting refugees and U.S. military involvement in countering ISIS. Some key findings:
Perhaps most fundamentally, 59 percent of Americans in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, say the United States is at war with radical Islam, which is little changed from a poll earlier this year.

Seventy-three percent support increased U.S. air strikes against the Islamic State, or ISIS, and 60 percent back more ground forces, double the level of support for ground forces from summer 2014. One reason: Eighty-one percent see a major terrorist attack in the United States in the near future as likely.

There are differences among political groups on other issues, but many of those in degree, not direction. Just more than six in 10 Republicans and independents say the United States is at war with radical Islam; that declines to 53 percent of Democrats, fewer, but still a majority.

In the sharpest division, 69 percent of Democrats approve of Obama’s handling of terrorism. Sixty-four percent of independents, and 85 percent of Republicans, disapprove.
A majority of respondents were opposed to admitting Syrian refugees and unconvinced screening is either possible or effective.