More than 40 percent of Americans believe civil war is at least somewhat likely in the next 10 years, according to a new survey — a figure that increases to more than half among self-identified “strong Republicans.”
Amid heated rhetoric from supporters of former US president Donald Trump, the findings, in research by YouGov and the Economist, follow similar results in other polls.
On Sunday night, US Senator Lindsey Graham predicted “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted over his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House, materials recovered by the FBI at Trump’s home this month.
Photo: Reuters
Graham earned widespread rebuke: On Monday, Mary McCord, a former acting deputy attorney general, told CNN that it was “incredibly irresponsible for an elected official to basically make veiled threats of violence, just if law enforcement and the Department of Justice ... does their job.”
Saying that “people are angry, they may be violent,” showed that “what [Trump] knows and what Lindsey Graham also knows ... is that people listen to that and people actually mobilize and do things,” McCord said. “January 6 was the result of this same kind of tactic by President Trump and his allies.”
Nine deaths, including suicides among police officers, have been linked to the US Capitol attack on Jan. 6 last year, when supporters Trump told to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden attempted to stop the certification of electoral results.
Since then, fears of political violence have grown.
Most experts believe a full-scale armed conflict, like the US Civil War of 1861-1865, remains unlikely.
However, many fear an increase of jagged political division and explicitly political violence, particularly as Republican politicians who support Trump’s lie about electoral fraud run for US Congress, governor’s mansions and key state elections posts.
This month, Rachel Kleinfeld, a specialist in civil conflict at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Guardian: “Countries with democracies and governments as strong as America’s do not fall into civil war. But if our institutions weaken, the story could be different.”
In the poll by YouGov and the Economist, 65 percent of all respondents said political violence had increased since the start of last year.
Slightly fewer, 62 percent, thought political violence would increase in the next few years.
Participants were also asked: “Looking ahead to the next 10 years, how likely do you think it is that there will be a civil war in this country?”
Among all US citizens, 43 percent said civil war was at least somewhat likely.
Among strong Democrats and independents that figure was 40 percent, but among strong Republicans, 54 percent said civil war was at least somewhat likely.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done