More than four out of five Americans see politically motivated violence as being on the rise, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
The survey, which considers the response of 3,445 American adults, was conducted in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, one of the US’s biggest political activists at the time of his death. Kirk’s killing, condemned by most of the political spectrum, rekindled a national discussion about political violence in the US.
Views on political violence
The results of the poll, which were weighted for demographic factors, show that 85% of respondents believe that politically motivated violence is on the rise, compared to only 3% saying that it’s decreasing.
The belief that political violence is increasing appears to be bipartisan, as nearly equal amounts of Democrats and Republicans are shown to agree with the statement. Similarly, around 50% of those asked see left-wing and right-wing extremism as major problems.
Still, Americans generally seem to consider extremism from the other side of the political spectrum as a bigger threat than from their own side. Results show that 77% of Republicans or Republican-leaning respondents see left-wing extremism as a problem, while 76% of Democrats or Democrat-leaning respondents say the same about right-wing extremism.
Reasons behind political violence
The survey, consisting of online responses as well as phone interviews, asked respondents for their opinion on why they believe political violence is increasing. One Democrat-leaning interviewee believed that polarization led to the increase, saying that “the country has, over time, become politically only two major parties with severely extreme and opposite views.”
A Republican agreed when asked the same question, adding that “we don’t see each other as people but as the ‘enemy.’ When you see someone as an enemy, you can justify a lot of awful actions.”
Ranking only behind blaming “the other side”, political polarization was the second most common answer given when participants were asked to rank “the main reasons for politically motivated violence in recent years.”
Other reasons given were an “unwillingness to engage with [or] understand those with different views”, “acceptance of violence”, and “media” (including social media).
Curiously, Americans across the political spectrum view these issues as problematic in nearly equal numbers, suggesting a willingness to return to polite discourse across the board. As one participant noted, “we don’t have to agree with each other but we must learn to have adult conversations again.”