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January Six Anniversary
We are quickly coming to the anniversary of an attempted coup. The fact that a large number of Republicans has no issue with what happened. Or worse, they believe it’s justified, is a bad thing. With a third of Americans questioning the legitimacy of the Joe Biden presidency.
Many of these people do not think violence is a problem. By that, I mean political violence. This is a problem if we are to survive as a nation.
The new poll found that 40% of Republicans and 41% of independents said violence can be acceptable, compared with 23% of Democrats. Forty percent of white Americans said violence can be justified, compared with 18% of Black Americans.
Flashback: The percentage of adults who said violence is justified was 23% in 2015 and 16% in 2010 in polls by CBS News and the New York Times respectively, according to the Post.
These are not fringe people, with the militias. These are pretty much middle-class, professional people. This is a symptom of radicalization. These people are ready to pick up arms to defend what they believe in.
This is precisely how countries go down a path to civil war. This is a pattern I first observed in the fringes, in the 1990s. Back then I came across this while doing research for a novel that was never finished. One scene involved a mass shooting at a local school. I was…