Posted on 11/03/2025 8:36:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind
I feel like Politico has just discovered something that conservatives have been openly worrying about for more than a year and especially in the past two months after the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Most Americans expect political violence to keep growing in the United States and believe that it is likely a political candidate will be assassinated in the next few years.
Widespread pessimism about political violence is a rare, grim point of consensus in a country riven by political and cultural divisions.
A majority of Americans, 55 percent, expect political violence to increase, according to a new poll from POLITICO and Public First. That figure underscores just how much the spate of attacks — from the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this year to the attempts on President Donald Trump’s life in 2024 — have rattled the nation.
Surprisingly, Harris voters were more likely (61%) to say political violence was likely to increase than Trump voters (50%). That may have more to do with Democrats' tendency to catastrophize everything than reality. But both parties expect to see a political assassination in the near future.
While political violence can take many forms, more than half of Americans say that it is very or somewhat likely that a political candidate gets assassinated in the next five years, according to the exclusive survey. That view cuts across party lines, with agreement from 51 percent of last year’s Trump voters and 53 percent of Americans who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris.
But the worst part of this poll is the number of Americans who now suggest political violence may be justified.
Perhaps most troubling, a significant minority of the population — 24 percent — believes that there are some instances where violence is justified.
There was little partisan divide in that belief, but a strong generational one: Younger Americans were significantly more likely than older ones to say violence can be justified. More than one in three Americans under the age of 45 agreed with that belief.
University of Chicago political science professor Robert Pape told Politico a violent age was upon us. "We’re not on the brink of it, we’re firmly in the grip of it.” he said.
I'd like to see a more detailed breakdown of the polling but Politico only offers one chart and it doesn't cover the question about who is mostly likely to believe political violence is justified. One third of those under age 45 seems really high. My guess, and that's all it is, is that this is mostly coming from 20-somethings. They are usually the cohort most likely to do something dumb in the name of politics.
The Independent notes that other recent polls show the same trend.
The results are similar to an October NPR / PBS News / Marist poll, which found that 28 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans thought political violence might be necessary to “get the country back on track.”
Between the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol and the 2024 election, there were at least 300 cases of political violence, a 2024 Reuters analysis found, the largest surge in such attacks since the 1970s.
A Pew poll from last month was very similar:
Across the country – and across the political spectrum – Americans see politically motivated violence as on the rise in the United States...
85% say politically motivated violence is increasing. This includes nearly identical shares of Republicans and Republican leaners (86%) and Democrats and Democratic leaners (85%)...
77% of Republicans say left-wing extremism is a major problem in the country. Far fewer (27%) say this about right-wing extremism.
Democrats’ views are nearly the reverse: 76% say right-wing extremism is a major problem, while 32% say left-wing extremism is a major problem.
Everyone is on edge and both sides are blaming the other's extremists. The recent trend shows an increase in attacks from the left but more than a quarter of Democrats blame the political violence on Trump.
28% of Democrats specifically mention the rhetoric or behavior of Trump, the MAGA movement or conservatives as a reason for recent politically motivated violence.
I wonder how many of these people still believe that Charlie Kirk was killed by someone on the far right. The left really pushed that lie into existence and none of the people involved ever apologized.
This tendency toward and acceptance of violence by certain segments of the population is a logical result of the incitement of the Democrats and the media.
“Democrats, the Bolshevik Party.”
___________________________________________________________
It’s not only the Democrats. There’s been a fair number of posters here suggesting things like “2nd Amendment solutions,” and “watering the tree of liberty.”
It’s all a prompt to violence.
This not just a post this is a three alarm fire warning!!!!
The lefts hate is overflowing and a real danger, they have dropped all pretense.
Pay attention, progressives aka 'regressives', democrats, liberals,
lefts, socialists, sjw all are hate based. It's their liberal pack
mentality, hate and attack first it doesn't matter if it is warranted or
not, the hate and the attack is the end and the beginning of any
discussion as far as they are concerned.
The democrats are the party of hate, their rainbow coalition is a
targeting system, they look for things to hate, to attack. Laughably
this is why they attack each other so quickly and willingly...
They killed Charlie Kirk, then they tried to tar his name, his wife , his
family. They cheered his MURDER by a woke furry trans freak.
Arm your selves, they have thrown down the gauntlet and have sworn they
will make America and Americans bow down to their sick political world
view. If we don't we will be round up and detained, beaten and killed.
Arm your selves, be ready and when one of these barely human monsters
try to attack you or your family or friends; let them be met by a hail
of bullets fired in self defense.
Just look at the news, pick a channel; it's there every hour, every day,
every week, they hate you, they hate your family, they hate your kids
and they even hate your pets. Even the oily dirty politicians have
striped the mask of lies from their faces and are screaming for
bloodshed and the death of the innocents.
See if they think the same thing when they are on the receiving end of it...
Surely a good conservative like you knows the left is more open to political violence thanks to their ends justifies the means thinking.
Extreme Liberals are SIX TIMES more likely to support political violence than Extreme Conservatives.
Moderates support Political Violence more than Conservatives.
Propaganda of the Deed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_of_the_deed
If one needs no further proof that political assassination has once again become not only normalised, but indeed, CELEBRATED, the recent case of Charlie Kirk, and the immediate aftermath is florid proof.
It was both terrifying and sobering to see just how hard and effectively the political left worked to quickly seize the narrative, and turn the whole event into one of shameless mockery of his death, and celebration of a “Blows Against The Empire” level of victory against a “Fascist”.
All those t-shirts that almost immediately appeared, showing Charlie with an exaggeratedly-small face, and his neck gushing with the caption: “Debate THIS!” or all those teachers in Arizona wearing the “blood-soaked” t-shirts with “PROBLEM SOLVED”. Likewise, all the social outlets, where putting up tributes to Charlie became a bannable offense...
So yes, it seems we’ve once again entered an era, where a lot of folks think that the bullet is a far more effective tool than the ballot.
That NEVER leads to a good place...
One could be tempted to draw the conclusion that the media is quietly fomenting violence while attempting to maintain plausible deniability. But that would be crazy, right?
There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and cartridge (or ammo). Please use in that order.”
Only a troll such as yourself would make it a point to criticize FR. We are already at war and many do not know it. Pick a side!
They never think that the violence will be against them. Fools.
What does justify the means?
I’m the same way when I get emotional. We just need to talk them down when they are not pumping emotion, give some insight they can relate to:
Imagine if J6 was a violent insurrection: you would be dead now. See, not what ought happen. Imagine if your Chatlie Kirks were all gunned down and that mortally spilled blood celebrated wildly? Not what oughta happen to yours.
Play AFO.
[There’s been a fair number of posters here suggesting things like
“2nd Amendment solutions,” and “watering the tree of liberty.”
It’s all a prompt to violence.]
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
I don’t get a lot of fuzzy-kitten vibes from that.
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