Support for political violence depends on specifics, study shows

Americans surveyed shortly before last year’s midterm elections overwhelmingly saw political violence as a problem facing the country and generally opposed violent acts against either everyday people or elected officials. Still, a significant percentage deemed political violence — which the survey defined as “violence, threats, intimidation or harassment” — acceptable in certain scenarios. In the survey, 78 percent of Americans saw politically motivated violence as a problem in the United States, with 12 percent seeing it as “not much of a problem” or “no problem at all.” 30 percent said political violence was “always” or “frequently” acceptable if “leaders from the party in power disobey the laws while prosecuting their political opponents who disobey the same laws.” That percentage rose to 49 when including those who said violence was “occasionally” acceptable under such circumstances.