One in three Americans say violence against government sometimes justified: Poll
One in three Americans believe violence against the government can sometimes be justified, according to a poll by the Washington Post and University of Maryland.
The poll showed that 40 percent of Republicans said violent actions could be justified, in comparison to 23 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of independents.
On the other hand, 62 percent believe violence was never justified, and four percent either had no opinion or answered "justified" but "said in a follow-up question that they did not think violence was justified."
Among those who favored violence against the government, 22 percent said that such actions could be merited by the government violating or taking away people’s rights or freedoms, and 15 percent cited a potential military takeover or collapse of democracy.
The poll’s findings were detailed on Saturday in a Washington Post article, which said the percentage of adults who said violence could be justified had increased in recent years.
In October 2015, 23 percent of people said it was justified in comparison to 16 percent in both January 2011 and April 2010 and 13 percent in April 1995, according to the researchers.
Meanwhile, the latest poll showed that 19 percent believed that the legal consequences for people who broke into the US Capitol on Jan. 6 were too harsh, while 51 percent thought they were not harsh enough. Another 28 percent said the punishments had been fair, and 3 percent had no opinion.
However, the poll also showed a wide partisan divide over former President Donald Trump's responsibility for the riot. Among Democrats, 92 percent said Trump bears a "great deal" or a "good amount" of blame for the attack, compared to 27 percent of Republicans.
The survey was conducted between Dec. 17 and Dec. 19 and included 1,101 adults. The margin of error was plus or minus four percentage points.
The poll comes as the US nears the one year anniversary of the Capitol attack. Since Jan. 6, Democrats have been arguing that the protest was an insurrection based on disinformation spread by the former president, who alleges that he is the true victor of the 2020 presidential election and not Biden.
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