A disturbing trend is hitting America that is being wildly underreported because it’s one that could drastically affect how we in America interact with one another.
As Becky Noble reported on Wednesday, there’s been a drastic upswing in the number of people who say politically based violence is okay. It’s a swing being exhibited by both parties but for two different reasons:
The study from the University of Chicago shows that public support overall for the use of force to coerce members of Congress rose from just nine percent in January of 2023 to 17 percent in June of 2023. A rate that essentially doubled in just six months. The most prevalent increase was among Democrats, where the rate grew roughly 2.5 times. Among Democrats, the rate of support for the use of force went from seven percent in January of 2023 to 16 percent in June of 2023. Interestingly, the poll states that “This growing anger parallels the Republican rise to power and proceedings in the House of Representatives.” You don’t say?
To be fair, the study showed that Republicans and Independents are not guilt-free when it comes to the use of force, but not nearly at the rate of Democrats. Republicans’ approval of the use of force rose by six percent and Independents’ by eight percent. Those who support force to restore former President Donald Trump also grew by 4.5 percent, to a total of seven percent of those surveyed.
Naturally, mainstream outlets are painting this as a response to Donald Trump merely existing. The Guardian, for instance, is saying that the positive view of violence was a reaction to everything from Trump’s presidency, to his loss, and the events of January 6.
Nothing is being made of the literal encouragement the Democrats gave to their voters, especially during the Black Lives Matter riots.
Is this increase in violence being a valid option a bad thing? Absolutely. No country should ever want to see its people devolve into harming one another over politics. It’s a fast track to third-world status in places where violence becomes a real issue. Just look at some of the cities in America where violence is at its highest.
But there are things happening in this nation that make violence an inevitability. While this is a tragic fact of life, it’s one that was understood upon the founding of this nation. A revolt against oppressive governments is viewed positively, for instance, in our Declaration of Independence with “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”
A revolt against the government is never out of the question. Our nation has experienced one before, but that was a civil war where lines were clearly drawn by northern and southern states and governments. Today, a civil war would look very different as it would effectively feature neighbor-on-neighbor violence with or without the approval of governing bodies.
Communities are a mixed bag of ideologies that often conflict with one another, but in today’s age, the things we’re conflicting about are ideas where there can’t be a compromise. For instance, we can’t compromise on introducing sex and sexuality to our children. We can’t compromise about our personal self-defense. We can’t compromise about our freedom to work. We can’t compromise about injecting foreign substances into our body by mandate.
You might be a liberty-minded person who wants to be left alone, but the political opposition has no desire to give you agency or independence. They’ve threatened to come to your street and to your home. They’ll come to your work and your child’s school.
To be sure, they’ll be cheered on by members of the federal or local government. The media will either hold them up as heroes or stay quiet, but they likely won’t make any official declarations about the violence being inflicted upon you.
As we drift closer to election season, you can damn well bet that the left will ramp up the violence as they have now almost every election season, and as they do you can bet that innocents will be swept up in the chaos. As the violence destroys and kills, the anger will rise and more people will approve of violence in order to secure their version of order.
Perhaps not this election season or the next one, but this pattern will eventually lead us to a point where violence will be so commonplace that it won’t be too distinguishable from a civil war. The shift will be gradual, but if this pattern continues it will be inevitable.