CBS poll : 28% of Republicans think violent action against the govt. is ok

[Liberty Belle]

This is disturbing: A CBS News poll finds that while the overwhelming majority of Americans (76%) reject violence against the government, the percentage who think violent action is sometimes justified (16% overall) is more than twice as large among Republicans (28%) as among Democrats (11%) and independents (11%).


28% of Republicans think violence against the government is okay?




We have got to stop the right wing talk shows from fomenting such radical views which are clearly fostering violent tendencies. How do we undo this dangerous tide?


(scroll down, it's in the detailed results near the end: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/CBSNewsPoll_011111.pdf

[brettdale]

1. Oh dear

That is sad.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Fer the record, this is the MINORITY civil wars come from

No, not Republicans... in general.

[FLAprogressive]

3. I want to know who the FUCK those 11% of Dems are.

because I think they're in the wrong party.

[pnwmom]

4. Some of them have posted here. I always alert on that. n/t

[Recursion]

6. I can think of three groups that might make up the 11%

1. Believe it or not, "Reverend" Phelps of the Westboro Baptist ("God hates fags") church is a registered Democrat, and has run for office as a Democrat. There's still a vanishingly small part of the South that remains nominally Democratic because Lincoln freed the slaves.

2. There probably still are some Old Left holdouts from the MOVE/SLA/etc. days.

3. The party probably does pull a few on the modern anarchist left.

[Hannah Bell]

7. I think "sometimes justified" is broad enough that no conclusions can be drawn about

what the people who checked that box are thinking.

If you check "never" then you're effectively saying the US revolutionary war wasn't justified.

when the basis of america & americanism is that it was highly justified.

[wickerwoman]

9. Based on the way the questions are worded, it's not clear what government they're talking about.

The US government or government in the abstract?

Because while I don't believe it's acceptable to use violence against the US government, in theory (and in the constitution) we have a right to overthrow a tyrannical or abusive government.

So given this question without clarification, I might be in the 11% who say in theory that citizens retain the right to assert their liberty in the face of an oppressive government by the use of force.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[southmost]

5. they're so flaky

just a few years ago , they were 100% pro-gubmint patriots

[NYC Liberal]

8. But violence against "government" means violence against human beings

since the government is composed of people.

[SoCalDem]

11. and republicans are what...31% of the population? so 28% of 31% admit to being crazy?

Just another fuzzy poll that is pretty meaningless..:)

[kevinbgoode]

19. Thank you.

One thing that gets them very pis*ed off at me is when I ask conservatives why they are so upset with the shooting in Arizona, since clearly the perpetrator was only acting out the rhetoric supported by some right wing activists. It sort of ruins their "mentally unstable" theory when they have to figure out how to explain that Loughner's actions are mentally unstable, but if THEY decided government was a tyranny and wanted to use "second amendment remedies" they are patriots and not mentally unstable.

[mmonk]

12. Is that 28% of the 16%?

Be sure you know exactly what you saying.

[NuclearDem]

13. lol both sides do it too

lol wait whaddya mean they don't

[JoeyT]

14. Depending on how the poll was worded I'd have to ask for an explanation of the question.

I can't download PDFs on this computer, but if the question was "Would violence against the government ever be justified?" or something along those lines, I might answer yes....after all, the question is so vague it's open to any number of possibilities. If they started rounding up liberals/centrists after a wingnut coup, for example.

Violence against the government as it stands now and will likely stand for the forseeable future outside of ridiculously unlikely hypotheticals? Of course not.

So it's possible some of those "Yes" answers were treating it as a purely hypothetical question. Or maybe I'm just overthinking it.

[quaker bill]

15. When did it start becoming acceptable?

Personally, I think the "Brooks Brothers Riot" in during the recount of 2000 was a turning point. While now proven a totally staged sham, it provided primetime images of angry caucasians being nasty at government officials and getting their way.

[Hubert Flottz]

16. That's about the same as the 28% that supported Bush in the end.

The backwash brigade.

[Enthusiast]

21. The Bush diehards. nt

[woo me with science]

17. The way that poll was worded, I would hope 100 percent would say it's justified.

The poll asks if violence against the government is EVER justified.

Well, ask some Germans in the 1930's and 1940's.

That's different from saying it's justified now.

[no limit]

22. Thank you, this.

[Kingofalldems]

18. Gun hicks

The type that shoot road signs.

[reformist2]

20. Fairness Doctrine.