How divided is America? So divided that nearly a third of Americans believe a second civil war is likely in the next five years. According to a recent poll by Rasmussen Reports poll, 31 percent of American likely voters believe another civil war is on the horizon, while 11 percent believe it is very likely.
There are several reasons why Americans feel this way. “widespread political polarization on issues like immigration and recent public confrontations of Trump administration officials,” as USA Today reported, are among the signs of unrest. In fact, more than half of the poll respondents “said they are concerned that political violence is likely from opponents of President Donald Trump‘s policies,” Haaretz reported.
According to the data, 59 percent of all voters were concerned that people opposing Donald Trump’s policies would resort to violence. (During President Obama‘s second year of presidency a poll found that 53 percent of respondents were concerned about violence from opponents of the president’s policies.)
The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that separated more than 2,000 children from their parents has received lots of backlash and protests, including a Congolese immigrant named Therese Okoumou climbing the Statue of Liberty in protest on Independence Day.
Also, Trump administration staff–from White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant because she works for Trump to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen being greeted with protesters–have faced public confrontation from political opponents.
And the divisions among Americans are being played out in the streets with more and more incidents like white people calling the police on Blacks doing legal and everyday things like waiting at Starbucks or leaving an Airbnb.
And the belief that a civil unrest is on the way, is about equal on both sides. The poll found that 37 percent of Democrats believed that a civil war was likely versus 32 percent of Republicans.
Here are the results broken down. “Women and those under the age of 40 are more concerned about the threat of war, in comparison to men and older voters. 44 percent of Blacks are worried about a civil war, compared to 28 percent of whites and 36 percent of other minority voters. Whites are also less concerned by political violence than people of other ethnicities,” Haaretz reported.
The survey polled 1,000 likely U.S. voters on the telephone and online from June 21 to June 24 with a sampling error of 3 percentage points.
Written by Ann Brown
Source: moguldom.com
