The ‘Burn It All Down’ Crowd Deserves to Be Defeated

There’s plenty of bad news for Joe Biden in the latest New York Times/Sienna Research survey of the 2024 electorate in six of America’s most competitive states. And yet, maybe the most fascinating finding in the poll came amid an effort to identify the most nihilistic subgroup in American politics — a demographic that has allowed its discontent to metastasize into contempt for America itself. Call it the “burn it all down” crowd.

Times/Sienna pollsters asked voters to describe their outlook toward the “political and economic system in America” and the degree to which the status quo requires reform. Unsurprisingly, given the general dissatisfaction with the trajectory of America’s “political and economic system,” a majority (55 percent) said the system requires “major changes.” Less than one-third of respondents said the country needed only “minor” tweaks or no changes whatsoever. More interestingly, though, 14 percent identified themselves as radicals in endorsing the notion that “the system needs to be torn down entirely.”