A PRRI survey out Wednesday shows that nearly a quarter of Americans support political violence heading into the 2024 presidential election, as an overwhelming majority believe democracy is at risk.
Did not read the entire article, but the first thing that stands out to me is the survey question itself:
Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.
This language is extremely in line with fascistic rhetoric. So the people agreeing to this are likely Trump supporters. Maybe this is a good thing that most people think democracy is in trouble but only 23% of them think fascism is the solution.
Steve Scalise was shot by someone who protested at Occupy Wall Street and volunteered for Bernie Sanders (source). I’m not blaming Bernie or Occupy but it isn’t fair to say 100% of political violence is on the right. There’s at least some on both sides.
Edit - feel free to downvote this opinion but all I ask is you make an argument. Why are you downvoting? Let’s have a constructive conversation.
This whole site is children mostly…they downvote any dissent in the hive mind.
But to posture a real rebuttal…yes, there’s some violent outliers on the left, but the right is preaching violence day in and day out.
When Trump ate his first indictments, fox was openly talking about a revolution. I switched over for 20 minutes or so to see what they were saying, and it’s pretty incredible they can openly promote a coup.
But yea, the left is violent as well, it’s just not as well organized. For all the mass shootings, the left has burned down and looted entire cities.
It’s a real bad time in the US regardless of which side you’re on.
Downvotes don’t bother me. I’m happy to have a discussion with pretty much anyone about pretty much anything. A lot of people here skew young and liberal or leftist but some are making very interesting points. Some are making less interesting points.
What I’ve been thinking about is could this ever turn into a tit for tat escalation of violence or not. Does anyone here have any faith in institutional checks or do they see themselves as the only check on domestic extremism.
This is going to be a really telling election I think. Are there any moderate Republican voters who are getting fed up with the current Republican party or are they Republicans-to-the-end?
It is a bad time right now but the 60s were a bad time and we made it through. I like to hope this is temporary.
60s were a bad time and we made it through
The local police didn’t have tanks then. The rise of the AR as a hobby rifle also changes the game a lot. Imagine if the Texas belltower shooter had a modern weapon instead of a bolt action rifle.
Hopefully you’re right, but the game is very different today than it was then.
Does anyone here have any faith in institutional checks
No…and if you still do, I’d say you’re naïve. The fact that 70% of Republicans and 30% of Democrat politicians aren’t in jail proves that point. It’s corruption up and down both sides of the isle. Granted, I do think one side is worse…but overall…picking a demon or Satan himself isn’t much of a choice.
This is going to be a really telling election
And that’s the really interesting question. I’m just a regular middle class guy and frankly, both parties are going to fuck me hard. Trump raised my taxes by a full point, my state (hard blue) raised it 2 points. I don’t mind the tax raises so much if I got anything at all in return for them. It goes to either the military complex and business or Medicare…neither of which affect me. The point in that isn’t to whine so much as to use as an antidote for the 40% or so of America that is completely disenfranchised by the political debate these days.
That brings me back to the original point of violence on all sides and it’s a really bad time in the US. You have 30% or so on each side of the spectrum that are just hardcore lunatic fanatics for their team. Then there’s a growing middle ground that is just pissed at the whole thing.
My choices right now are the body from weekend at Bernie’s or a golden cow.
You’re absolutely right that the stakes are incredibly high. I could be naive but I like to think of myself as cautiously optimistic. I do not like Mike Pence. I’d never vote for him. But I’m incredibly happy that he didn’t play along with the insurrectionists’ playbook. He could have. I’m proud that there are at least some prosecutions for submitting false electors. I’d like to see more.
I work with people who tell me that their 401k was better under Trump and that’s why they want Trump back. Some of them voted for Hilary and Biden. That makes me nervous.
I told someone else that if Biden dropped dead on November 4th I’d still vote for him on November 5th.
My honest hope is he does drop dead right after the election and we get Harris for two terms. I’m not a huge fan of hers, but she was an order of magnitude more progressive than Biden.
The economy comment is the one that scares me. All the kids on this forum are dismissive of it, but yea, my stocks were performing much better under Trump, my salary was higher, and generally I had more money in my pocket.
I think that had more to do with trailing indicators from Obama than Trump, but that’s a subtlety the public doesn’t understand.
As a general rule I try to never hope someone dies. Harris is very intelligent and very capable but she has zero charisma and like it or not charisma is important. Reagan had it, Clinton has it, Obama has it, Trump has it, and I think Biden used to have some of it too. Harris doesn’t have any and that’ll make getting elected hard. I know a lot of black folk, almost university men, who don’t like her because of her record as a prosecutor. I honestly think it would be very hard for her to win a national election. I think her best chance would be a scenario like you described where she would have time to show Americans how intelligent and capable she truly is.
