One in three Americans say violence against government justified – poll

Washington Post releases survey showing ‘considerably higher’ number saying it is sometimes right to take up arms

One in three Americans believe violence against the government is sometimes justified, according to a new Washington Post poll.

The survey, with the University of Maryland, was released on New Year’s Day – five days short of a year since rioters attacked the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat by Joe Biden.

According to the authors of The Steal, a new book on Republican attempts to fulfill Trump’s aim through legal action in key states, the rioters of 6 January 2021 “had no more chance of overthrowing the US government than hippies in 1967 had trying to levitate the Pentagon”.

But it was still by far the most serious attack on the seat of federal government since the British burned Washington in 1814 and the Post poll comes amid a sea of warnings of growing domestic strife, even of a second civil war.

The Post reported: “The percentage of Americans who say violent action against the government is justified at times stands at 34%, which is considerably higher than in past polls by the Post or other major news organisations dating back more than two decades.

“The view is partisan: The new survey finds 40% of Republicans, 41% of independents and 23% of Democrats saying violence is sometimes justified.”

Other polls have found that more than half of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that Biden won the White House thanks to electoral fraud, and do not trust elections.

As pointed out by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague, authors of new book The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and People Who Stopped It, Trump was ultimately stopped by “the integrity of hundreds of obscure Americans from every walk of life, state and local officials, judges and election workers. Many of them … Republicans, some … Trump supporters”.

Nonetheless, at a rally near the White House on 6 January, Trump told such supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause.

“And if you don’t fight like hell,” he said, “you’re not going to have a country anymore”.

Five people died, including a rioter shot by law enforcement and a police officer.

The Post poll found that 60% of Americans said Trump bore a “great deal” or a “good amount” of responsibility for the Capitol attack. However, 72% of Republicans and 83% of Trump voters said he bore “just some” responsibility or “none at all”.

The Post reported: “A majority continue to say that violence against the government is never justified – but the 62% who hold that view is a new low point, and a stark difference from the 1990s, when as many as 90% said violence was never justified.”

The paper interviewed some respondents.

Phil Spampinato, 73, from Dover, Delaware, and a political independent, said he first “contemplated the question of whether violence against the government might be justified” as a way of “defending your way of life” after he saw Republicans changing state laws to restrict voting by Democrats and to make it easier to overturn results.

“Not too many years ago,” Spampinato said, “I would have said that those conditions are not possible, and that no such violence is really ever appropriate.”

Anthea Ward, a Republican 32-year-old mother of two from Michigan, said: “The world we live in now is scary. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but sometimes it feels like a movie. It’s no longer a war against Democrats and Republicans. It’s a war between good and evil.”

Ward said she did not approve of the Capitol attack. She also said she would not participate in violence over Covid-19 vaccine mandates – another social flashpoint.

But, the Post reported, Ward did say other people could be justified in choosing to “express their second amendment right” if the government “infringe[d] their freedom of choice” over vaccines, “and nonviolent action such as protests were unsuccessful”.

Contributor

Martin Pengelly in New York

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Biden urges Americans to take a stand against political violence: ‘We’re facing a defining moment’
President asks voters to reject election denying candidates in midterms to ‘preserve democracy’

David Smith in Washington

03, Nov, 2022 @1:44 AM

Article image
Rudy Giuliani: Biden aides say TV news must stop booking Trump lawyer
Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield tell executives former New York mayor is spreading ‘false, debunked conspiracy theories’

Ed Pilkington in New York

29, Sep, 2019 @9:03 PM

Article image
Trump asks Barr to investigate dubious claims against Joe and Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden the subject of reports by New York Post that have been treated with caution over credibility concerns

Martin Pengelly and Tom McCarthy

20, Oct, 2020 @5:15 PM

Article image
Washington and state capitols brace for violence from armed Trump supporters
Security beefed up across US following attack on Capitol while FBI monitoring threats of violence against Biden and Harris

Victoria Bekiempis in New York and agencies

15, Jan, 2021 @6:26 PM

Article image
Nearly 60 million Americans cast early vote as record-shattering turnout expected
Americans ‘determined to express themselves’ while candidates scramble to deliver closing message as election looms

Richard Luscombe in Miami

25, Oct, 2020 @4:32 PM

Article image
Biden talked to Americans, Trump talked to his base: key takeaways from the first debate
The candidates came into the debate with divergent goals as analysts called the chaotic exchange a failure

Daniel Strauss in Washington

30, Sep, 2020 @6:06 AM

Article image
Three-quarters of Americans say Biden too old for second term, poll finds
Respondents used words ‘old’ and ‘confused’ to describe president, and ‘corrupt’ and ‘dishonest’ to describe Donald Trump

Martin Pengelly in Washington

28, Aug, 2023 @2:46 PM

Article image
‘We dodged a mortar round’: George Packer on America in crisis
The award-winning reporter’s new book considers threats to democracy from the right around the Capitol attack – but his view of those who seek social justice has angered some on the left

Julian Borger

19, Jun, 2021 @6:00 AM

Article image
Trump calls on China to investigate Biden in extraordinary demand
President, who is facing an impeachment inquiry over similar behavior with Ukraine, warns ‘If they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous power’

Julian Borger and Lauren Gambino in Washington

03, Oct, 2019 @6:55 PM

Article image
Trump rejects change to rules despite chaos of first debate
President condemns white supremacists two days after debate in which he declined to do so

Joan E Greve in Washington and agencies

02, Oct, 2020 @2:55 AM