A Quarter Of Americans Now Believe Political Violence Is Justified

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

We have seen a rise in both rage rhetoric and political violence. New polling shows a shocking level of support for political violence, even after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. A new poll shows roughly a quarter of voters believe political violence is justified with the highest percentage among younger voters.

The poll shows that 55 percent of Americans expect political violence to increase with the highest percentage among Harris voters at 61 percent.

Younger Americans are the most supportive of political violence. The poll shows that one in three Americans under 45 years old believes that political violence is justified.

This tracks with other polling that shows that roughly thirty percent of both Democrats and Republicans felt that political violence might be necessary.

The rise in support for political violence comes at a time when politicians are increasingly engaging in violent or rage rhetoric.

DNC Chair Ken Martin just told MSNBC’s “The Beat” that “we may be nearing” the moment when “elections don’t matter and then the resistance looks completely different.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on people to “forcefully rise up.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who pictures himself brandishing a baseball bat has previously called upon people to “fight in the streets.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom previously declared, “I’m going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger  called upon her supporters to “Let your rage fuel you.”

She then refused to withdraw her support for the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Jay Jones, who once expressed his desire to kill his political opponents and his children.

In his podcast with co-host Al Hunt, James Carville was again spewing unhinged hate. He returned to treating Trump and others as Nazis and their supporters as “collaborators.” I previously criticized Carville for that analogy. He later attacked me.

Doubling down, Carville declared

“You know what we do with collaborators? I think these corporations, my fantasy dream is that this nightmare ends in 2029 and I think we ought to have radical things. I think they all ought to have their heads shaven, they should be put in orange pajamas and they should be marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and the public should be invited to spit on them.”

To be sure that his menacing words were not lost, he then added “The universities, the corporations, the law firms, all of these collaborators should be shaved, pajamaed and spit on.”

There was no later pushback by his co-host, Hunt, or anyone else associated with the podcast.

Notably, going into today’s election, Jay Jones was still leading in the polls despite saying that he wanted to kill political opponents and their children. Democratic voters were clearly not deterred by such rage rhetoric.