(LifeSiteNews) — Nearly 1 in 4 Americans said they believe political “violence” could be “justified” in certain “circumstances,” according to a new poll released by Politico.
The feeling was strongest among younger Americans. “Younger Americans were significantly more likely than older ones to say violence can be justified,” Politico reported. “More than one in three Americans under the age of 45 agreed with that belief.”
A majority of Americans also believe a political candidate will be assassinated in the next five years. “That view cuts across party lines, with agreement from 51 percent of last year’s Trump voters and 53 percent of Americans who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris,” according to Politico.
The news outlet polled 2,051 adults online between October 18 and October 21. The poll followed the brutal assassination of Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk on September 10.
A national free speech group said the results are similar to what they have found when polling students.
About “1 in 3” college students say it could be “acceptable to use violence to stop a speaker,” according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
“It’s not a 1-to-1 comparison since it’s college students vs. the general population, but the percentages were in the same range as the Politico poll (1 in 5 in 2020 and around 1 in 3 today),” the group told LifeSiteNews.
FIRE’s director of research also told LifeSiteNews how Americans can come together and bring down the temperature.
“Engaging face to face has significant benefits over engaging through layers of abstraction, like a social media platform, or a text message chain,” Ryne Weiss told LifeSiteNews via a media statement. “It’s easy to forget that there’s a living, breathing person when you’re only engaging with them online through an avatar.”
‘That inherent dehumanization in the best case leads to more talking past each other, and in the worst case leads to the kinds of ad hominem attacks and insults that you’d never use offline,” Weiss said.
He also warned people to be wary of “distortions” online of what most Americans believe.
“It’s important to recognize that the views that we see with a lot of engagement online aren’t necessarily representative of how most people on one side of the aisle or another think,” Weiss said. “Inflammatory comments are more likely to draw engagement, and when folks on your own side decide to share content from the other side, it’s usually the most outrageous or easy to take down, not the most representative.”
He concluded by reiterating the value of living in the real world an not just online: “‘Touch grass’ is usually used as an insult, but there’s wisdom there. Engaging in real life, interpersonally with an open mind can correct for all of these effects.”
A well-respected legal scholar who often writes about free expression and open dialogue issues criticized Democrats for using “rage rhetoric.”
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who pictures himself brandishing a baseball bat, has previously called upon people to ‘fight in the streets,'” Jonathan Turley noted on his commentary website. He is a law professor at George Washington University.
Left-wing California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has tried to refashion himself as a moderate in anticipation of a 2028 presidential run, has his own history of heated comments. “I’m going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth,” Newsom said in August.
Meanwhile, Jay Jones, the newly elected attorney general of Virginia, once fantasized about seeing his Republican colleague in the House of Delegates shot.
In 2022, Jones texted a friend and shared his dream about his Republican colleagues dying before him, writing, “if those guys die before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves. Send them out awash in something.”
Democratic leaders have also used abhorrent language to describe Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who are enforcing the country’s residency laws while also removing violent criminals from the streets. There has also been a surge in attacks on ICE agents corresponding to the rhetoric.
The immigration agents are the “modern-day Gestapo,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a failed vice presidential candidate, said.
Left-wing Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, claimed immigration enforcement was turning the country “essentially” into “Nazi Germany.”
The White House has extensively documented the heated rhetoric used by Democrats to oppose all enforcement of the country’s immigration laws.