Sunday subscribers-only thread for May 23, 2021

Happy Sunday!

We are nearly five months from the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol and there are no signs public opinion on the matter is improving. Republican elites' continued endorsement of the "big lie" that Joe Biden stole the election, demonstrated by the party's removal of Liz Cheney from her position as the party's House chair last week, has kept GOP voters' disbelief in Donald Trump's loss steady and high. A new Ipsos/Reuters poll this week found that only 25% of Republicans think the 2020 election was legitimate and accurate. Fifty-three percent say Trump is the current president of the United States. 

Meanwhile, polling from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that nearly 90% of Republicans who watch Fox News tend to believe the same thing. 

This is, of course, unsurprising. We know from research on how people form their attitudes that voters adopt many of the views of their social circles and opinion leaders. This dynamic is even stronger when someone is alread…