US faces new era of political violence as threats against lawmakers rise

As support for political violence appears to be on the rise in the US, experts warn that such threats endanger the health of America’s democracy. Recent polls show an increasing number of Americans are comfortable with political violence, although there is a wide range of opinions on the type of violence that is acceptable. A much smaller portion of survey respondents, 3%, believe that political violence is usually or always justified. But having studied such polling since 2017, Mason said it is clear that support for political violence is indeed on the rise in the US. Mason’s team saw some positive results when they asked participants to read messages from random Twitter users condemning political violence.