Robert P. Jones: Biden-Harris Looks Like America’s Future, Trump-Pence Like the Past

Robert P. Jones: Biden-Harris Looks Like America’s Future, Trump-Pence Like the Past
In a recent interview with Religion News Service, PRRI CEO Robert P. Jones offered his take on the presidential tickets. “The Biden-Harris ticket looks a lot more like America’s future and the Trump-Pence ticket looks a lot more like America’s past,” Jones says. According to Jones, religious breakdowns are a good indication of where Republicans and Democrats stand. “In terms of their racial and religious makeup, self-identified Democrats look about like 30-year-old America, while self-identified Republicans look about like 70-year-old America.” PRRI data shows that white Christians (44%) are now a minority within the United States.
PRRI Releases New Data on Trump and Biden Favorability
On Wednesday, PRRI released the latest installment of our tracking poll on the favorability of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. The report shows that the president’s favorability (38%) has remained stable since July, though below his peak in March (49%). Former Vice President Biden’s favorability (51%) also remains mostly steady. Views of Biden by party and ideology have not significantly shifted, although the increase in favorability among Republicans (18%) relative to July (13%) is a trend to keep an eye on. Additionally, almost two-thirds of white Catholics (66%) now hold favorable views of him, compared to 40% in July.
Viral Video Appears to Be Russian Misinformation Strike
According to PRRI’s 2019 American Values Survey, 46% of Americans believe that foreign influence in the electoral process is a serious issue. This includes 63% of Democrats and 26% of Republicans. A recent piece for The New York Times recaps how a recent viral video, which purported to show protesters burning Bibles, is one of the first major strikes of the 2020 election from a Russian government-backed misinformation campaign. The video has Russian origins and was made to incite anger against protesters. “Some stories are tailored to appeal to conservatives, others to an audience that might be best described as the alt-left. Many of them are made to exacerbate racial tensions ahead of the election, officials said earlier this year, well before the recent civil rights protests began,” the Times explains.
Jennifer Rubin: Biden and Harris are the Perfect Rebuke to Make America Great Again
In The Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin writes of how former Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) offer a “perfect rebuke” to the message of President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.” “‘Make America Great Again’ is the perfect crystallization of white supremacy, as opposed to the visible incarnation one sees in torch-carrying neo-Nazis, hooded Klu Klux Klan marchers,” Rubin writes. She quotes from PRRI CEO and founder Robert P. Jones’ latest text, “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” on the popularity of the “Make America Great Again” version of white supremacy. “Because of a radical narrowing of our understanding of white supremacy, the term paradoxically functions to soothe rather than trouble most white consciences,” Jones writes.
Robert P. Jones Talks ‘White Too Long’ With CBS and Brian Lehrer
In a Tuesday interview with CBS, PRRI CEO and founder Robert P. Jones discussed his new book, “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.” “The institutions that have not gotten enough scrutiny are white Christian churches,” Jones tells CBS’ DJ Sixsmith. “Those churches were the chief legitimizers of that worldview throughout American history. I’m trying to cast a light on something that’s really plain and [ask] what does that mean for us today.” Jones also appeared on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC this week. There, Jones adds that “the threads of white supremacy run really all through white American Christianity, not just among evangelicals in the South.”