The US “seems headed toward a civil war in the near future,” believe almost half of the Republicans surveyed by a new poll released on Wednesday.
The sentiments were shared by 44 percent of all respondents and 39 percent of Democrats, according to the findings released by the Southern Poverty Law Cente.
Furthermore, the Republicans were revealed as more likely to agree that “some violence may be necessary to get the country back on track.”
The poll, taken in late April and covering 1,500 adults, also revealed substantial support for threatening or acting violently against perceived political opponents across the political spectrum.
44 percent of young Democratic men were shown to be the most agreeable to the idea of “assassinating” politicians whom the respondents believed were “harming the country or our democracy,” with 40 percent of younger Republican women approving of the idea. Older individuals, defined as those 50 and older, irrespective of their party affiliation or gender, were not fans of such violence.
Generally, the survey showed there was a great deal of animosity expressed for people on the other side of the political aisle both by Republicans and Democrats.
The data also found support for the 'Great Replacement Theory' referenced by the shooter who opened fire in a Buffalo supermarket on 14 May.
The 18-year old Payton Gendron allegedly left a manifesto in which he expressed white supremacist beliefs, including theories of white population replacement. He is also described as making use of the Black Sun - a symbol used by Nazi Germany and neo-Nazi groups, including the Ukraine's Azov battalion.
In the manifesto, Gendron referenced the internet as a factor in his radicalization and cited other mass shooters, including Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant, as having inspired him. The FBI qualified the shooting spree as a racially motivated hate crime, with US President Joe Biden refering to the incident as domestic terrorism.
According to a poll by the Southern Poverty Law Center, nearly seven in ten of those surveyed agreed that left wing politicians were pushing economic changes to gain power by “replacing more conservative white voters”.
Elsewhere in the survey it was revealed that slightly over half of those polled agree that the government “has become tyrannical,” including 70 percent of Republicans.
The 2020 election was “fraudulent, rigged and illegitimate” believe 49 percent of the Republicans and only 36 percent of them they have even a fair amount of faith in elections officials.
“No political outcomes are inevitable. But our results show that a substantial effort, on the part of activists, institutions, and government, will be required if we hope to secure a multiracial democracy and prevent partisan violence,” wrote the SPLC in its analysis of the survey findings.