More and more Americans apparently believe that violence may be necessary
to achieve their political goals, and you will never guess which Americans
are most likely to think that.
Except that you totally, totally will. Let's take a look at the poll results.
Overall, 20% of national adults either strongly agree or agree with the idea that
Americans may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track.
But obviously there are fairly large differences once you break it down
by party ID with Democrats having only 12% agreement, Republicans all the way
up at 28, and independents, as always, somewhere in the middle.
And look, look, we're going to keep that up for a little bit.
Even 12% of Democrats I think is a little bit distressing.
I think we should all be able to agree on that, but that overall, if you're standing
in a crowd, 1 in 5 of the people there think, you know, democracy is complicated
and persuading people is tough.
So maybe at some point we'll just start shooting people.
And the fact that more than 1 in 4 Republicans, a significant percentage,
I mean, that's that looks like the MAGA percentage of the country at large think,
yeah, we might need to do this thing.
And when everybody says it doesn't necessarily mean the same exact thing.
So for those Republicans responding to that, bear in mind they're already
coming off of a big election loss in 2020.
They're enraged by the fact that although they pretend to not accept
that Trump lost, they know that he lost because he was incompetent.
He wasn't able to rally people to his cause, and they're deeply worried
that they will lose again in 2024.
We already see the turn in independent right wing media, demonizing the very idea
of democracy or popular democracy.
They are working to increase that number, to prepare their population,
to accept some alternative to democracy, a strongman ruler and overturned election,
or perhaps some sort of violent uprising.
And so can we really be that surprised that these numbers are as high as they
are, particularly when leaders are going around the country talking about
how there's going to be bloodbaths if Trump loses and they're talking about the
blood of the nation and they're talking about an invasion at the southern border,
this violent, bloodthirsty, militaristic language has become utterly normalized
both by our politicians and by our media.
Maybe in the end, we should be shocked that it's only 28% of Republicans
and 1 in 5 Americans at large.
Pausing here to deliver some honest truth, as we do in our news coverage as well.
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Yeah, John, it's interesting because the numbers have actually gone
down a little bit since earlier polling.
So I've seen polling as high as 41% of Republicans saying that it might
be time for violence, but I think that I see the numbers going down.
This is just a theory, okay?
That, since Trump took the lead, right wing leaders have been saying it
less about the need for violence, because and I think it's because of some of the
demographic information they're seeing.
I might be way over extrapolating here. Okay.
But I think that part of the reason why the right wing leadership,
both in media and politics, started talking about violence.
You saw congressperson after congressperson talking about
your Second Amendment rights, your right to rise up against government tyranny.
1776 Roseanne Barr is still saying, 1776 at this, late juncture.
ET cetera.
And and she and she's not unclear about it.
She says if we win, great. If we lose the election 1776.
So don't tell me it means anything else.
No, it means we do violence against people we don't agree with, because who cares?
We never believed in America. We just believed in power.
And as long as we're in power, awesome. If we're not in power, we do violence.
But I think that part of the reason that they were going in that direction
was because they thought, demographically, we're screwed.
There's no way we can win in the future.
I mean, they remember they almost never win the popular vote anymore.
The last Republican, in fact, the only, what won out of the last seven
presidential elections, George W Bush won the popular vote in 2004.
Outside of that, they have lost six out of seven,
and it looked like it was over for them.
So that's why they were going to.
Well, if we can't win a democracy, who cares about democracy?
The point is us winning. So then we'll do it with violence.
Is right wing has throughout history, to be honest.
Right.
So but now they're seeing new numbers with.
Trump starting to get too close to 20 points with African American voters,
at least African American males, which is unprecedented.
Trump winning Latinos in some polls unprecedented.
And now last poll has them, has Trump with a slight lead among younger voters.
And that was the number one thing they were worried about and why they
were talking about violence nonstop.
But Biden, congratulations.
Mainly because of Gaza, but because of many other things,
including the nonstop corruption that no Democrat ever does anything about.
Well, what do we have?
We have young people going are who, you know, screw the Democrats.
So now all of a sudden there's a little bit less talk about violence
because they don't need it as much.
Right.
That hasn't that memo has not gone to Donald Trump.
It's still talking about bloodbaths from time to time.
Although to be fair, that was economic context etc.
And it has not gotten to the lunatics like Roseanne Barr
that are still on that same path.
Okay, now, having said that, 28% of Republicans saying
we should do violence is awful, terrible.
And John's right, 12% of Democrats. What are you thinking?
What, are you, nuts? No, no, not under any circumstance.
But we're in dark times where people think.
And I'll say one last thing about that. I'm curious what you think.
Mondale look, guys, I think part of the frustration here
is something that people don't talk about.
I told you what I think is largely driving the right wing, but the
reason you're seeing 12% among Democrats and 18% among independents
is not because they're like, oh yeah, man, I hope Trump wins through violence.
No, right.
They're a giant percentage of this country is frustrated that our politicians
never represent us.
And they're like, this system is so broken
that they're desperate for any other way to get out of the mess that we're in.
That's why in this same poll here, we I think we have it 41%.
Let me go to graphic three, 41% of all of Americans overall, said the
nation has gotten so far off track that it needs a leader willing to break rules.
Looking across Partizan lines, 56% of Republicans, 28% of Democrats
and 37% of independents agree.
Because what are the rules?
If by the rules you mean democracy in the Constitution, hell no.
Right.
But if by the rules you mean this current corrupt system where only
the donors win you, I begin to understand why people want to break rules.
Doing it through violence is a pathway to disaster.
That's not the right way to do it.
But we do have to break this corrupt system.
- And that is true. - Yeah.
I think for me, I think what bothers me about this is I expect more from PBS.
This is a this is a very irresponsible poll in that like, I think,
the lack of, like, detail of explaining or explanations of what we're
talking about is completely dangerous.
So, I mean, we see 28% also, we're talking about 300 people right out
of out of hundreds of million people that are registered to vote in this country.
Also, most independents aren't really independent.
Most independents vote always Democrat, always Republican.
And I think I would have been I would have been more appreciative of PBS
if they would have asked people how they vote, not how they're registered.
Right.
Because that that matters the most because we see something.
I don't believe that there, I don't believe that we're
there's a lessening of violence.
I've seen, there's a book that just came out talking about white rural rage,
where we're seeing this crazy percentage of rural white people that support Trump,
that are really anti-constitution and more strongmen and more for violence.
And I think we are preparing ourselves to not answer the call when we're not
talking about this in a whole hearted way.
And I believe, I believe wholeheartedly as a person from rural space.
It's a person who is interacting with my rural white neighbors on a daily basis.
That war has always been baked in as a as an option of them losing twice.
This is a country where white supremacy is 400 and zero 400 years and undefeated.
So when you see it happening twice to a people, you have to understand that
MAGA was all always about taking America back when she spoke only for white people,
because there was no time when America was ever greater than it is now.
When we're talking about in terms of including the most people.
So when we look at America right now, talking about going back to this time
when it was great, you have to ask when when you're ask when everybody
that you ask on the Republican side, they're talking about a time
where only white people, specifically rich white people, had rights.
And I think that to me is scary as hell.
It also reminds me that, America is as white as she is
because of policies, right?
America did not remain majority white without preventing African nations
from migrating to this country throughout the 60s, 70s, 50s and 40s.
Right?
It wasn't until the 90s that black people from African countries
could actually start coming here.
The same thing is true with America limiting
how many brown people could come here.
So America is the way she is because of racist.
Season.
I think manga and this idea of violence is baked in, and it's as American
as apple pie and baseball.
Yeah. One more thing, if you don't mind.
Black men aren't becoming more conservative, right?
We just watched in Ohio, and I keep telling people, if you look at black men,
what we're seeing is a rejection of the democratic way of policy.
It's very transactional.
So what we see is more black men willing to sit out elections, not more
black men vote for Republican candidates.
We see time and time again when progressive ideas are on the ballot.
Nobody outperforms black men, not even black women.
And the world might look at me like I got three heads,
but I also have the data to support it.
In Ohio, we just watched, women's right to Choose be on the ballot,
and black men outperform everybody.
The closest demographic to us was black women, where 80% of them
voted for it and 88% of black men.
We actually voted for women's right to choose in Ohio, more than we did
for the legalization of marijuana.
We also saw this time and time again throughout the South when we were sitting
in our focus groups, talking to black men.
This idea that black men are becoming more conservative is something that is
a creation of Donald Trump saying it one time in 2020, and then Edmonds running
with it through these these flawed polls.
People don't understand the history of black men in this country is to lie
to pollsters, because we were raised two and three generations ago from people
who were polled by slave masters, who said, are you going to run away
from this plantation, or are you happy?
And to say, to tell the truth to that white person pulling you was
to get yourself killed.
Nobody was happy on the plantation, but you wouldn't tell the master that.
So we were raised by those folk. My grandmother is a great example of this.
A woman who went to church all the time.
But the minute somebody white called her phone and asked her about her insurance
or her life policy, she would tell a lie immediately and hang up the phone
after she said, bless your heart.
But that was I mean, this is a woman that was raised by someone who was enslaved.
So, you know, lying to pollsters is not a lie for black people.
It's a way to save your life and protect your identity.
All right.
I'm gonna ask the last couple of quick things here.
Yeah, I've seen some shift in the rhetoric from the right wing leaders, as I said.
But you're right that when you get down to the level of hardcore MAGA,
the guys that go to the Trump rallies, we recently went to a rally as ten guys,
if they would prefer Biden as president or Trump as dictator,
all ten said Trump is dictator, right?
And so they're not. And look, look at the South.
Right. So in the old days, what did the South do?
Do you think they did democracy? No they did.
Might is right.
I'm going to own you even though you're a human being.
How am I going to do that? Am I going to let you vote?
No. Am I going to let you get educated?
No. I'm just going to use violence against you.
So let's not pretend that this is a new concept in America.
Right?
And so and finally, as part of that, when we did the Civil War, they said,
oh, no, it wasn't about slavery.
And a lot of people in the South believe that that's insanity.
It was obviously about slavery.
And that is why when you in this same exact poll, when they asked how many of
you think that Joe Biden actually won the presidency, only 38% of Republicans
at this late date said that he's actually the legitimate president.
So huge majority of Republicans just don't believe in facts.
Wow.
And they think, no, Trump's actually the president and that Biden never won.
So that's that's nuts. That's totally, utterly nuts.
And why?
Because the right wing is used to getting lied to because guys super last thing.
What is the whole point of the Republican Party tax cuts for the rich?
Okay, that is the only thing they ever do.
That's the only thing that Trump did, right?
That's the only thing Reagan did. That's the only thing Bush did.
Also wars okay. But but overall money flowing to the top.
That is the whole point of the Republican Party.
In order to get a majority of people to vote for more money
to go into the richest people in America, what do you have to do to lie?
Yeah. Got to lie.
Exactly.
That's why the Republican Party is built on a mountain of lies.
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