Poll: 25% of Americans willing to take up arms against US government

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A poll released on Thursday revealed a deteriorating situation on the social grounds of the US: More than 25% of US residents feel so alienated by their government, that they believe it may be “soon be necessary to take up arms” against it.

Around 1,000 registered US voters participated in the survey, which was published by the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics. The survey, furthermore, revealed that most US citizens agree that the US government is "corrupt and rigged against everyday people like me."

As the data suggests, extreme polarization in US politics, which has impacted social relationships, is higher than ever at the moment. 

The statistics obtained come at the same time when hearings for the attack on the US Capitol are broadcasted on television - the attack is based on divisive premises that Biden did not win the 2020 election, and that Trump is the US' legitimate president. Rioters violently stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election results. 

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Although the rioters attacked both Democrats and Republicans, Trump loyalists have insisted that the committee investigating the January 6 events is illegitimate.

Furthermore, the survey indicates that there is an increasing distrust in the US government, and that distrust varies from party to party. For instance, 56% of participants said that in general, they trust elections to be conducted fairly and counted accurately, while Republicans, Democrats and independents carry different convictions regarding this point. 

The vast divide can be directly linked to the January 6 riots: While Democrats have plenty of trust in the aforementioned item (80%), only 33% of Republicans exhibited trust. In the middle comes the independents, 51% of which showed trust in the US government. 

According to the poll, 49% of Americans said they feel “more and more feel like a stranger in my own country” - a display of a sharp wedge in American unity, which is backed by how the participants identified themselves: 69% of the participants identified as "strong Republicans," 65% described themselves to be "very conservative" persons, and 38% "strong Democrats."

Of the 28% of voters who said that they may soon need to take up arms against their government, 37% said they had guns in their homes. A third of Republicans, which also includes 45% of "strong Republicans" held the belief of taking up arms. But, that is not all: 35% of independent voters and 20% of Democrats agreed, too.

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Now, when it came to in-group-out-group tensions and aggression, 73% of Republicans agreed that “Democrats are generally bullies who want to impose their political beliefs on those who disagree,” and “an almost identical percentage of Democrats (74%) express that view of Republicans”.

"These poll results are perhaps the starkest evidence of the deep divisions in partisan attitudes rippling through the country,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster who conducted the survey in May.