Democrats may be the most vocal, most rabid advocates for gun control.
But that doesn’t mean they are anti-violence. In fact, a new poll shows an alarmingly high number of young Democrats are fine with assassinating political rivals.
That was based on a newly released poll by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC, which has long routinely labeled its opponent’s bigots or white supremacists, surveyed 1,500 people in April.
True to form, the SPLC poll was intended to show how racism is alive and well on the right.
The SPLC claimed in a press release that the poll indicated “the ideas underpinning the white nationalist ‘great replacement’ narrative recently cited by an alleged white supremacist terrorist in Buffalo, New York, have become thoroughly mainstream on the political right.”
“Nearly 7 in 10 Republicans surveyed agree to at least some extent that demographic changes in the United States are deliberately driven by liberal and progressive politicians attempting to gain political power by ‘replacing more conservative white voters,’” the group noted.
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Of course, the SPLC steered clear of how those same “liberal and progressive politicians” and their media allies actually feed that narrative.
They do so by cheering the decline of the white population, by openly and loudly declaring that America must atone for its racist past with set asides for blacks and other minorities in education and employment in the name of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and by denouncing that America as “systemically racist” and arguing that the path to racial harmony lies in crowding whites out of political office, corporate boardrooms, and other power centers.
Nonetheless, the SPLC said its intent of the poll was “to examine to what degree people in certain groups feel threatened or persecuted by members of a defined ‘outgroup.’”
The group said it uncovered among respondents “a great deal of hostility for people on the other side of the political aisle.
“A majority of both Republicans and Democrats believe their political opponents pose a threat to the country and want to harm their political opponents. That kind of animosity could fuel partisan violence — a possibility that our results suggest we should take seriously,” the SPLC said.
The group noted that about 1 of 5 respondents “approved of threatening or assassinating a politician.”
Buried at the bottom of its press release, the SPLC discussed its findings on “partisanship and violence.”
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It found that 67 percent of Democrats see Republicans as a “threat” to the country, compared to 63 percent of Republicans who felt the same about Democrats.
When asked to identify the top three threats to America, Democrats answered with, in descending order, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, former President Donald Trump, and “extremists” in the Republican Party.
The SPLC claimed, “Those on the right appear more likely to approve of political violence.” That emerged from a question about whether “some violence might be necessary to protect the country from radical extremists.”
On that issue, 41 percent of Republicans agreed, compared to 34 percent of Democrats and 29 percent of independents.
Yet when the SPLC asked if threaten or even assassinating is appropriate for a politician who is “harming the country or our democracy,” “levels of approval for both scenarios were slightly higher for Democrats than Republicans, driven largely by the approval of younger Democratic men.”
Overall, 44 percent of Democratic men who were “younger,” defined as under 50, supported the idea of assassinating a politician they believed was “harming the country or our democracy. Only 34 percent of younger Republican men agreed, while just 6 percent of older GOP men did.
And, naturally, as the SPLC noted, this is the Republican Party’s fault.
“Not all of those who say they approve of violent actions are willing or able to commit them personally. The decision to carry out political violence depends on a multitude of factors, including opportunity, means and the broader political environment,” the group said in the release. “But we do currently live in a moment when political leaders are leaning into violent rhetoric, meaning the social sanctions against violence could be eroding and, in the process, creating an atmosphere more conducive to acts of political violence.”
In conclusion, the SPLC added, “Our guard should be up, especially after receiving yet another stark reminder of the immense pain and violence that can come when far-right ideas are allowed to fester.”
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