ANALYSIS – Is America headed for even greater political violence? Is civil war on the horizon? Well, a lot of Americans are deeply concerned that the answer to these questions may be yes.
Four in every five American voters feel the U.S. is “spiraling” out of control after the attempted assassination of former President Trump, a Reuters-Ipsos poll finds.
The poll signaled that 89% of registered voters surveyed agreed that “acts of violence” were “throwing this country into chaos” during a turbulent election year. (RELATED: Biden Makes Historic Election Announcement)
The survey of 1,202 Americans aged 18+, which included 992 registered voters, showed that 58% were “very concerned” about this and 31% were “somewhat concerned” following Saturday’s Pennsylvania rally shooting that killed one spectator and wounded two others.
But as The Hill noted: “Americans hardly needed an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump to realize that our civil society is fraying.” It added: “Last weekend’s horrific shooting feels in many ways like the logical progression of a political culture that has been growing increasingly extreme for years.”
The author went further:
All of this rhetoric has a profound effect on our national psyche. As I wrote back in late May, the risk of political violence has grown so acute that growing majorities of voters nationwide now expect to see some form of post-election bloodshed. That fact should be a huge concern to America’s elected officials, who swore oaths to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution and our free system of government. Instead, most seem resigned to living in this new era of hyper-violent political rhetoric, which breeds violent incidents like the savage attack on Paul Pelosi and the shots fired at Trump.
Other data and polls he cites are just as worrisome:
While a recent NPR/PBS/Marist poll found that 19 percent of American adults said they agreed that political violence may be necessary to “get the country back on track,” a stunning 42 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 agreed with that statement. That means nearly half of the young people in this country believe the attacks on Pelosi and Trump are just the cost of doing business in a political world now defined by the language of extreme violence.
Now, in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump, there is danger of the cycle of violence escalating.
This reality was quickly underscored as the Secret Service just arrested an unstable and mentally ill Florida man for threatening to kill President Joe Biden. Jason Patrick Alday was charged with three counts of making threats against the president and federal officials, according to a criminal complaint filed on Monday.
As the political heat increases security takes on a bigger role. Newsweek reports:
Secret Service protection for the 2024 presidential candidates has been bolstered in recent days after a sniper attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday, two days before he was formally recognized as the Republican nominee.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing on Monday that protection for Trump, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have all been amended in the wake of the shooting. Secret Service protection has also been extended to independent candidate Robert F. Kenndy Jr. and enhanced for Trump as he attends the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
Meanwhile, the latest Reuters-Ipsos poll gaves Trump a slight lead among registered voters – 40% to President Biden’s 39% – while Robert Kennedy Jr. collected 11%. (RELATED: Biden Goes Nuclear, Chooses Candidate To Replace Him – What It Means For Trump)
The poll suggested that a face-off between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump would result in both attracting 44% of registered voters’ support.
Other polls show Trump doing much better against Harris.
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Democrat Political Violence began with the attempt on Congressman Scalise’s (and other Republicans) life. The took an even more monstrous turn with Stephen Paddock and his (and possibly other murdering accomplices) with the slaughter of Conservative County & Western Music concert-goers in Las Vegas, NV. I still remember the GLEE a huge number of Democrats showed in their Tweets at so many victims dying and being seriously wounded. When a CLOSETED SELF-HATING GAY MUSLIM conducted a similar slaughter in Broward County, FL at the Pulse Nightclub, which catered to gays, lesbians, etc. they blamed guns rather than the sheer hatred against Gays (and Jews!) many in the Muslim community feel, and Muslims by and large vote mostly for Democrats! So in a sense, this was an internal act of political violence by a Democrat against his fellow Democrats of divergent lifestyles.
You forgot Steve Scalise, Rand Paul, Larry Elder, Lee Zeldin…anyone see a theme??
“Talking about the significance of the passage of time, right, the significance of the passage of time. So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time in terms of what we need to do to lay these wires.” -Kamala Harris THIS? your better off with the fight
All good reporting should be non biased
Yours -in my opinion is not
If I recall correctly as reported he only person killed January 6th was an unarmed female demonstrator taken out by the police for non violently crawling into a window and the other deaths were heart attack/strokes mostly demonstrators.