[Note: a hyperlink to a downloadable PDF. doc. of the poll's graphical results can be found at the linked website article.]

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Nearly one in three Americans say it may soon be necessary to take up arms against the government

BY BRAD DRESS - 07/24/22 4:24 PM ET

A majority of Americans say the U.S. government is corrupt and almost a third say it may soon be necessary to take up arms against it, according to a new poll from the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

Two-thirds of Republicans and independents say the government is “corrupt and rigged against everyday people like me,” according to the poll, compared to 51 percent of liberal voters.

Twenty-eight percent of all voters, including 37 percent of gun owners, agreed “it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government,” a view held by around 35 percent of Republicans and around 35 percent of Independents. One in five Democrats concurred.

The findings come after a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol wrapped up its final hearing for the summer, seeking to place former President Trump at the heart of efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The panel also said Trump readily accepted and even encouraged the attack from his supporters, watching violence play out on television for nearly three hours before finally making a statement telling them to go home.

Despite the hearings, Trump still enjoys broad support among Republicans, who are more concerned about inflation, education and crime than they are about Jan. 6.

About 56 percent of Americans say elections are fair and accurate, but that number falls to 33 percent among Republicans, according to the Chicago University poll.

The division between conservatives and liberals across the country is only growing, the poll shows, and a quarter of Americans say they have lost friends over politics.

More than 70 percent of Republicans and more than 70 percent of Democrats both agree the other side “are generally bullies who want to impose their political beliefs on those who disagree.”

And half of all Americans believe the other side is misinformed about politics because of where they get their information and news, the poll found.

The University of Chicago-Public Opinion Strategies-Benenson Strategy Group poll was conducted May 19 to May 23 among 1,000 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.53 percentage points.

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Figures lie and liars figure but those are some scary numbers.

Just in time for midterm run up. More leftist attempt at division.

“See all those scary people with guns? We need the government to do something about them. In fact, we demand it!”.

Govern me harder, daddy!

How many of those are antifa and blm supporters wanting to take the country in the other direction?

Did they ask a question about whether people trust media to perform fair and accurate polling?

Hopefully this trend can be corrected. In such a scenario few would gain anything and most everyone would suffer in one way or another.

Are there many examples in history where corrupt abusive governments were able to correct their faults without widespread violence to put in check the abusive authority?

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Are there many examples in history where corrupt abusive governments were able to correct their faults without widespread violence to put in check the abusive authority?

I'm going to say "no." Maybe the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the regimes of the Warsaw Pact? Not sure that constitutes "correct their faults" if you look at a few of the former Republics.

The fall of the Soviet Union might not be the best example. They went from bad to not quite as bad but still pretty dang awful as far as governance and corruption goes.

Widespread violence may be a better alternative to going to work and paying taxes for the rest of our lives. Something different and exciting at least.

Battle of Athens 2.0?

Are they THAT mad about murdering your baby isn't a right when they murder each other in the streets every day?

Is our government, regardless of which party is in power at the moment, hopelessly corrupt? Yes!
Do Americans view each other with suspicion and distrust, thanks to politicians and the media? Yes!
Will armed revolution bring about change? Doubtful!
What it will bring about is chaos, bloodshed and the end of America.
It brings to mind the movie The Patriot, where when war with England was being discussed prior to hostilities beginning, the point was made that it will take place in our cities and homes, in front of our families.
Be careful what you wish for!

Yes, Stickman and Yooper, I agree. I lived in the midst of a civil war for a year in Sri Lanka. When I read people popping off on discussion sites inviting civil war, what I know immediately and for certain is that they don't know what the hell they are talking about.

"More than 70 percent of Republicans and more than 70 percent of Democrats both agree the other side “are generally bullies who want to impose their political beliefs on those who disagree.”

Isn't that the nature, by definition, of having two sides? Otherwise, we'd be on the same side. This is surprising?

"And half of all Americans believe the other side is misinformed about politics because of where they get their information and news, the poll found."

Only the right side is right about this though. The left / wrong side can believe this, but they'd be wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Did they ask a question about whether people trust media to perform fair and accurate polling?

It's not a media poll, it a poll from the University of Chicago, who I probably trust less than the media.
A bunch of liberal twats that whine and cry about everything.

quote:

Originally posted by justjoe:
Yes, Stickman and Yooper, I agree. I lived in the midst of a civil war for a year in Sri Lanka. When I read people popping off on discussion sites inviting civil war, what I know immediately and for certain is that they don't know what the hell they are talking about.

Agree with these sentiments that things would go from bad to worse. As bad as many things are.
And I truly we will get there, as long as we ourselves don’t insist on being too extreme or winning all our battles. Ever since our country was founded, it has been about compromise, which has often been ugly and difficult.
And I worry we do not want to play into their hands. I suspect this was in fact a liberal-oriented / slanted “poll” designed to try to argue that all these Republicans are whackos and it is time to get back their guns no matter what SCOTUS says.
Keep the faith, I truly believe we will get there. Great strides have been made. Let us keep moving forward, but being very careful about wanting to fight. Let use be gracious about our victories, and keep grinding them out.
Hope I am not offending anyone. I think I feel as strongly as you, just thinking of how best to get there.

The comparison may not be valid but our last civil war casualty figures run from 620K / 850K to as high as 1.5 million. Scholars / experts disagree on numbers.
If you crunch numbers further, the modern day total, based on our population now, equates to about 6 million.
But this was on both sides a government supported conflict.
Given the source, I dont put a lot of trust in the poll, either. But I do think there are people who are advocating some type of armed revolution.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
It brings to mind the movie The Patriot, where when war with England was being discussed prior to hostilities beginning, the point was made that it will take place in our cities and homes, in front of our families.
Be careful what you wish for!

And the example you give turned out extremely well didn't it?

Based on some of the comments posted in this discussion I think it's apparent many didn't take the time to look at the linked poll questions or the graphical results, or even taken a look at the methodology used in the poll, so let me add in a few facts.

- the poll was conducted in May of this year, long before the slate of important rulings released by SCOTUS in June.

- the students who helped conduct the poll were students in the school's political program, but were unpaid volunteers that participated in their free time.

- 1000 voters polled from across the nation, and the poll was conducted online.

- the poll was conducted by two (2) pollsters, one a Democrat pollster and the other a Republican pollster.

- the poll participants were required to self-identity both their party affiliation and where their political ideological beliefs landed on the political spectrum, and also whether there were guns in their household.

- not focused on, but the poll did seem to nibble at the edges that there is real distrust of various media sources, by both parties.

- According to the listed methodology, efforts were made to include a range of voters based on age, sex, ethnicity, region, and education. One thing that did catch my attention was that "weighting" was applied to certain demos, but the details were somewhat vague.

Lastly, I'll point out that there is a difference between the poll results themselves and how this media source framed the poll in their reporting. In my opinion they mostly reported the poll results accurately... but the reporter took a moment to reveal their bias when they detoured into the January 6th event.

As mentioned, I have some questions about just how the poll was "weighted", and there may have been some 'leading' wording used, but they appear to have made an attempt to include voters from both major parties, so I think the results are at least worth considering

It’s no wonder Leftist politicians want to disarm the population. They know we’re on to them