A bombshell poll from the Napolitan Institute just put a number on what every red-blooded American has suspected for years — 69% of politically active elites would prefer their team cheat rather than accept voters' decisions. Nearly seven out of ten. And they wonder why we don't trust the system.
Veteran pollster Scott Rasmussen called it "the most alarming polling result I've ever seen." Coming from a guy who's spent decades swimming in voter data, that's not exactly a casual observation. But honestly, Scott? We've been watching these people operate. The only alarming part is that 31% apparently still have a shred of shame.
The poll, commissioned by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and conducted by the Napolitan Institute, surveyed what researchers define as the "Elite 1%" — Americans with postgraduate degrees, urban residence, and annual household income of $150,000 or more. That tiny sliver, roughly 1% of the population, wields wildly outsized influence over media, policy, and culture. And 70% of them are aligned with the Democratic Party, compared to just 21% Republican.
So when nearly seven in ten of these folks say they'd rather rig the game than lose it fairly, we're not talking about some abstract philosophical debate. We're talking about the people who run newsrooms, staff federal agencies, and fund political campaigns.
Even among the broader Elite 1% who aren't politically hyperactive, 35% still support cheating over losing. One in three. That's not a fringe opinion — that's a culture.
And the contempt for ordinary voters runs even deeper. According to the same poll, 56% of politically active elites trust government agencies and "experts" more than they trust voters. The 77.3 million Americans who pulled the lever for Donald Trump in 2024? To these people, that's not democracy in action. That's a problem to be managed.
David Catron, Senior Editor at the American Spectator, broke down the findings for AMAC Newsline and connected them to real-world consequences that are already playing out. He points to the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, now led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, which has been reviewing 16 Republican-leaning states for potential violations of federal voter registration laws. The department has requested voter roll data from 29 states — not to suppress votes, but to clean up the rolls that years of neglect turned into a cheat sheet.
Because here's the dirty little secret the elites don't want you thinking about: dirty voter rolls are a feature, not a bug. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 require states to maintain accurate rolls. But for years, blue-state officials treated those requirements like suggestions. Dead voters, moved voters, duplicate registrations — all left on the books. Funny how that works.
And the preferred infrastructure for exploiting those bloated rolls? Mail-in ballots. Eight states now conduct all-mail elections: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. Ballots flying through the postal system to every name on the list, whether that person is alive, moved, or ever existed in the first place.
Contributor Stu Cvrk at American Greatness has documented how Democrats have pushed universal mail-in voting and same-day registration through legislation like the For the People Act — sold to the public as "expanding access" while conveniently making verification nearly impossible.
This is exactly why court victories like the one Florida just scored matter so much. On June 1, Florida's 1st District Court of Appeals upheld the state's new congressional redistricting map, blocking Democrat attorney Marc Elias's legal challenge. Attorney General James Uthmeier celebrated the ruling, and Governor Ron DeSantis noted that both the trial court and the appeals court sided with Florida. The new map adds four Republican-friendly districts — and Democrats' legal play to claw them back just hit a wall.
When the elites can't win at the ballot box, they lawyer up. When the courts say no, they scream about "democracy." The irony would be delicious if it weren't so dangerous.
The poll numbers tell the story plainly. These aren't conspiracy theories. These aren't right-wing fever dreams. Sixty-nine percent of the people who consider themselves our betters would rather cheat than let us choose our own leaders.
Remember that the next time some Ivy League talking head lectures you about "norms" and "institutions." Their version of democracy only works when they win.