Nearly 1 in 4 Americans say it’s OK to ‘resort to violence’ to ‘save’ country, poll says

A significant minority of Americans believe the country is in such dire straits that extreme measures — violence and violation of laws — are warranted, according to new polling.

Twenty-three percent of Americans agreed that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” according to a poll released Oct. 25 by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

This marks the first time that support for political violence has risen above 20% since the PRRI, in conjunction with the Brookings Institution, began posing the question in March 2021.

Inclinations toward violence varied greatly by partisan affiliation with 33% of Republicans and 13% of Democrats supporting it.

Additionally, Americans who believe the unfounded accusations of the 2020 election being rigged against then-President Donald Trump were far more likely to support violence than those who believe the election was fair — 46% to 13%, respectively, according to the poll. This finding comes despite there being no evidence of any systemic voter fraud in the 2020 election.

The poll surveyed a representative sample of 2,525 U.S. adults online between Aug. 25 and 30, and has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

Nearly four in ten Americans, 38%, agreed that “we need a leader who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right,” while 59% disagreed. Roughly half of Republicans, 48%, and 29% of Democrats favored a rule-breaking leader.

The poll is at least the second released in recent weeks that reveals authoritarian tendencies among a large portion of Americans.

A poll released by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics found that 41% of President Joe Biden supporters and 38% of Donald Trump supporters viewed violence as an acceptable measure to thwart their political opponents. The poll surveyed 2,008 registered voters from Aug. 25 to Sept. 11 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Other findings

The PRRI poll also found that 77% of Americans said the country is going in the wrong direction, continuing a decades-long trend of dissatisfaction with the nation’s trajectory, according to Gallup.

The overwhelming majority of Republicans and independents, 90% and 81% respectively, said the United States is on the wrong track, while 59% of Democrats said the same.

About half of Americans living in urban areas, 50%, said things were moving in the right direction, while 67% of those living in rural areas said the country was heading in the wrong direction.

Additionally, a minority of Americans, 44%, said American culture has improved since the 1950s, while 55% said it has taken a turn for the worse, with 73% of Republicans and 34% of Democrats saying the latter.

The poll also found that 38% of Americans agreed that “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background,” while 57% disagreed.

Sixty-five percent of Republicans, 37% of independents and 15% of Democrats support this idea — dubbed “the Great Replacement Theory” by some conservatives.

Further, when faced with 20 political issues, 62% of Americans rated everyday expenses and housing costs as critical issues, while about half considered crime, health care, human trafficking and health of democracy as critical issues.

Large portion of Americans doubt democracy and view violence as acceptable, poll finds

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