Republicans continue to focus on book bans despite overwhelming opposition from American voters
Libraries throughout the country celebrated Banned Books Week last week as Republicans in North Carolina and across the United States work to censor classrooms by banning books and limiting what educators can teach their students.
Amid Republicans’ campaign to challenge books and censor classroom curriculums, a new poll found that voters are overwhelmingly opposed to the increased efforts to ban books.
- A recent poll commissioned by the nonprofit EveryLibrary Institute found that 75% of American voters are opposed to the efforts to ban books and will consider that when voting in the midterm elections.
- The poll also found that opposition to book banning is a bipartisan issue – 95% of Democrats said preventing book banning is “somewhat important” or “very important” to how they will vote, 80% of independent voters said the same thing, and even 53% of Republicans expressed opposition to banning books.
- The poll also asked voters about four different types of books and their opposition to banning them. When it comes to classic novels, 93% are opposed to bans, 91% are opposed to banning children’s books, 72% oppose banning books focused on race and 59% oppose banning books focused on sexuality.
“Voters believe in the right to read and the right to be left alone to make their own choices about what to read,” said John Chrastka, executive director of the EveryLibrary Institute. “With such high numbers of voters from all parties, persuasions, and backgrounds telling us that they support American’s right to read, it’s time for politicians to pay attention and stop their attacks on libraries.”
As is often the case, Republicans think they have a winning issue when the reality is that they are very publicly supporting something a majority of Americans clearly don’t agree with. Based on recent polling, the Republican Party’s focus on issues like banning abortion and banning books will lead to losses in the upcoming midterms.
