Three out of every 10 Republicans believe the United States is so far gone that violence might be the only way to save it, according t...
Three out of every 10 Republicans believe the United States is so far gone that violence might be the only way to save it, according to a new poll released late last month.
The national survey taken by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that the fallout from January 6 Capitol riot may still be polarizing Americans more than nine months after it occurred.
Out of the 30 percent of Republicans who agreed that 'true American patriots might have to resort to violence in order to save our country,' 39 percent also held the belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Republicans who back baseless election fraud theories are about four times more likely to call for 'patriotic' violence than those who don't.
And 40 percent of those calling for uprising get their news from 'far-right' sources such as OAN and Newsmax.
Nearly one in 5 Americans - 18 percent - agreed with the need for violence in general, with 11 percent of Democrats and 17 percent of Independents saying so as well.
'Democracy is at a perilous crossroads right now. And I think that these poll results should be a further wakeup call to everyone,' Mike Sozan, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told DailyMail.com.
PRRI CEO and founder Robert Jones said the findings were unlike those he was used to seeing as a pollster
'One of the big challenges here is one of the nation's two major political parties is accepting dangerous disinformation about the 2020 election, even though our elections are safe and secure.'
Among religious groups, the poll found that 26 percent of white evangelical protestants believed violence is necessary to save the country, more than any other faith identity.
Next was people who follow non-Christian religions, of which 23 percent believe 'American patriots' need to take action to save the US.
PRRI CEO and founder Robert Jones said the findings are 'a direct result of former President Trump calling into question the election.'
'I’ve been doing this a while, for decades, and it’s not the kind of finding that as a sociologist, a public opinion pollster, that you’re used to seeing,' he told Yahoo News.
Even before he left office, the ex-president began promoting conspiracy theories that the election was rigged in favor of President Joe Biden.
On January 6 he channeled the furor created by those claims to rile up hundreds of supporters at his White House Stop the Steal rally, encouraging them to march toward the Capitol to put pressure on lawmakers who were readying to certify the election results.
Jones said he originally believed that the enthusiasm for violence would be highest 'in the heat of the moment' immediately after the riot.
Jones said the increase in calls for violence is a direct result of Donald Trump promoting baseless election fraud theories that led to the Capitol riot
But PRRI's findings on the question remained relatively steady in similar surveys conducted since March when 28 percent of Republicans, 13 percent of Independents and 7 percent of Democrats believed American patriots would have to 'save the country' with violence.
'One might hope cooler heads would prevail, but we really haven’t seen that' in the aftermath of January 6, Jones said.
'If anything, it looks like people are doubling down and views are getting kind of locked in.'
It appears the beliefs that pushed people to insurrection that day are still alive within Trump's party. Nearly 70 percent of Republicans either somewhat or completely agree that the election was stolen from Trump.
'That's a very unfortunate and dangerous result,' Sozan said.
About one in seven Republicans who believe so trust 'far-right' news sources, while only 19 percent of GOP voters who watch 'mainstream' media think the same.
'Donald Trump continues to repeat the lie that the election was stolen from him and that there was widespread election fraud - sadly, what we see is that Trump repeating that for over a year makes his followers believe it,' Sozan said.
The survey also shows that other beliefs that overlap with QAnon conspiracy theories still maintain a presence as well, despite repeatedly being disproven.
Roughly a quarter of Republican respondents to the survey identify as QAnon believers, which PRRI notes is 'significantly higher' than the 15 percent of Independents and 10 percent of Democrats who believe in it.
The survey also found a link between the number of Americans who feel the country has gotten worse since the 1950s and those who believe violence is needed to save it
But nationwide, PRRI identified two QAnon beliefs along with the idea that 'true American patriots' need to rise to violence that hold true with about one in every five Americans.
Twenty-one percent of all respondents believe that 'There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.'
And 18 percent agreed with the statement, 'The government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation.'
The alarming rise of extremist ideals also comes with a growing nostalgia for the 20th century, when America was at the height of its power on the global stage following World War II - and still behind on critical social and civil rights reforms.
A majority of Republicans believe life has changed for the worse since the 1950s, while a majority of Democrats believe it's changed for the better.
The share of Republicans who think life has gotten better since then is 29 percent - down from 46 percent the year before.
'Many people in the Republican party are holding very deeply-held views on race and religion, and wanting to harken back several decades when they thought things were better in this country - and so all of that together becomes a very toxic brew,' Sozan said.
Americans who've said the country has changed for the worse since then are more likely to believe in violence the change its path than those who think it's gotten better.
The survey polled a random sample of 2,508 American adults from all 50 states, between September 16 and September 29.
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