The Guardian: Half of Americans expect civil war within the U.S. over the next few years
The Americans are very disappointed with democracy in the U.S. and do not think that it works.
Dr Garen Wintemute used to laugh off warnings of a civil war coming to America as “crazy talk”. Then the emergency room doctor in California saw the figures for gun sales.
Wintemute, who founded a centre to research firearms violence after years of treating gunshot wounds, had long observed that the rush to buy weapons came in waves, often around a presidential election. Always it fell back again.
How a wild week in Washington changed the game for Biden and Trump
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“Then in January of 2020 gun sales took off. Just an unprecedented surge in purchasing and that surge continued,” he said. “We were aware that, contrary to prior surges, this one wasn’t ending. People are still buying guns like crazy.”
Many were buying a weapon for the first time.
Wintemute wanted answers and they stunned him. A survey for his California Firearm Violence Research Center released last month showed that half of Americans expect a civil war in the United States in the next few years. One in five thought political violence was justified in some circumstances. In addition, while almost everyone said it was important for the US to remain a democracy, about 40% said that having a strong leader was more important.
“Coupled with prior research, these findings suggest a continuing alienation from and mistrust of American democratic society and its institutions. Substantial minorities of the population endorse violence, including lethal violence, to obtain political objectives,” the report concluded.
Suddenly Wintemute didn’t think talk of a violent civil conflict was so crazy any more.
The doctor is quick to note that large numbers of those people expecting a civil war say it is only “somewhat likely”. But half of the population even considering such a possibility reflects the failing confidence of large numbers of Americans in a system of government under assault by Donald Trump and a good part of the Republican party.
The FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this month for classified documents removed from the White House unleashed the latest barrage of threats of violence, this time directed at an institution widely regarded as a bastion of establishment conservatism.
The Florida senator Rick Scott likened the FBI to the Gestapo. In Ohio, the police killed an armed US navy veteran who attacked an FBI office. In Pennsylvania, a man with a history of vaccine denial was charged with threatening to “slaughter” federal agents he described as “police state scum”, and compared to the Nazi SS and the Soviet secret police.
In the days after the search of Mar-a-Lago, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned of a surge in threats of violence against federal agents, their families and the judge who issued the search warrant. The FBI said these included calls for “civil war” and “armed rebellion”. Read more.
We are Democratic Republic, not a Pure Democracy
None of the Dr Garen Wintemute rant is based on reality. This goes for both Republicans, Democrats and the Federal government, who are looting us to death and giving criminal corporations the right to violate our Constitution. When they started killing Americans in mass with jabs they waged war on American Health, Freedom and Liberty.
Substantial minorities of the population endorse violence, including lethal violence, to obtain political objectives,” the report concluded.
Correction: Not “political objectives” but freedom and liberty, as guaranteed by the US Constitution and currently being removed at an alarming rate.
In Pennsylvania, a man with a history of vaccine denial was charged with threatening to “slaughter” federal agents.
Correction: Not “vaccine denial” but “vaccine refusal”. No doubt he saw the feds as enforcers of an unconstitutional mandate, which of course they are.