By Philip Bump, Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP, The Washington Post, July 25, 2022
It’s disconcerting that Americans see politics as the most important trigger for whether to pursue a friendship with a new acquaintance. It’s far more disconcerting that most Americans feel like the government is rigged against them and that more than a quarter speculate that armed opposition to the government may soon become necessary.
Just before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics (IOP) published new polling including those findings. Conducted in May, the poll was elevated in a segment on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Its findings gave new, well-deserved attention to information that many people had overlooked (including at least some of us who track such polling for our jobs).
What the poll found isn’t surprising, as such: Partisans view each other with hostility and skepticism. But when overlaid with other patterns in American politics — like the embrace of rhetoric about violence, particularly on the right — the potential repercussions become alarming.
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