Party Affiliation, Political Ideology, Views of American Democracy and Society, and Support for Political Violence: Findings from a Nationwide Population-Representative Survey

Background: Recent survey research has found a concerningly high level of support for extreme beliefs and violence to advance political objectives in the United States (US). This study assesses variation in that support with political party affiliation and political ideology.Design, Setting, Participants: Cross-sectional nationwide survey conducted May 13 to June 2, 2022; participants were adult members of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. Main Measures and Outcomes: Measures: party affiliation, on a 6-point scale from “strong Republican” to “strong Democrat”; political ideology, on a 7-point scale from “extremely conservative” to “extremely liberal.” Outcomes: weighted, nationally representative proportions endorsing an array of beliefs about American democracy and society and support for and willingness to engage in political violence. Results: The analytic sample included 8,620 respondents; the completion rate was 55.8%. Strong Republicans were more likely than strong Democrats to agree strongly or very strongly with statements that “having a strong leader for America is more important than having a democracy” (strong Republican, 25.4%, 95% CI 22.8%, 28.0%; strong Democrat, 15.3%, 95% CI 13.1%, 17.5%), that social and cultural conditions in the US may justify the use of force or violence, and that “in the next few years, there will be civil war in the United States” (strong Republican, 19.8%, 95% CI 17.3%, 22.2%; strong Democrat, 12.1%, 95% CI 10.1%, 14.2%). Support for political violence as usually or always justified “in general” ranged from 2.3% to 3.6% across party affiliation. Higher percentages of Republicans (from 35.3% to 49.5%) than of Democrats (from 24.7% to 27.1%) considered violence to be usually or always justified to advance at least 1 of 17 specific political objectives. Among all respondents, small minorities (<10%) were “very or completely willing” to threaten or intimidate, injure, or kill another person, and there were no statistically significant differences with party affiliation. Strong Republicans were more likely than strong Democrats to think it very or extremely likely that “I will be armed with a gun” (strong Republican, 14.6%, 95% CI 12.5%, 17.0%; strong Democrat, 4.7%, 95% CI 3.4%, 6.3%) and that “I will carry a gun openly, so that people know I am armed” (strong Republican, 8.2%, 95% CI 6.5%, 10.3%; strong Democrat, 3.5%, 95% CI 2.4%, 5.1%) in a situation where “force or violence is justified to advance an important political objective.” Findings for political ideology aligned with those for party affiliation. Conclusions and Relevance: In this nationally representative sample, there was substantial variation by party affiliation and political ideology in beliefs about American democracy and society and the endorsement of violence to advance political objectives. Personal willingness to engage in political violence was uncommon, but small percentages of the sample represent large numbers of US adults.