WASHINGTON: A third of Republicans believe US President Barack Obama poses an imminent threat to the United States, outranking concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Reuters/Ipsos conducted an online poll this month, interviewed 2,809 Americans including 1,083 Democrats and 1,059 Republicans, to rate how much of a threat a list of countries, organizations and individuals posed to the United States.
On a scale of 1 to 5, one was ‘no threat’ and 5 an ‘imminent threat’. The data was weighted to reflect the US population and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy of plus or minus 2.1%age points for all adults (3.4 points for Democrats and 3.4 points for Republicans.)
Findings of the poll:
- 34% Republicans ranked Obama an imminent threat, Putin 25% and Assad 23%
- 27% Republicans saw Democratic Party an imminent threat
- 22% Democrats saw Republicans as imminent threat
- 34% for North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un
- 27% for Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
- 33% Democrats concerned about climate change
- 27% Republicans said climate change not a threat at all
- Terror attacks — ISIS militants by 58%, al-Qaida 43%
- Cyber attacks 39%
- Drug trafficking 33%
Politics of fear:
Given the level of polarization in American politics the results are not that surprising, said Barry Glassner, a sociologist and author of “The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are afraid of the wrong things.”
“There tends to be a lot of demonizing of the person who is in the office,” Glassner said, adding that “fear mongering” by the Republican and Democratic parties would be a mainstay of the US 2016 presidential campaign.
“The TV media here, and American politics, very much trade on fears.”
