“The mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol may have been a fringe group of extremists, but politically motivated violence has the support of a significant share of the U.S. public, according to a new survey by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)” NPR reports.
“The survey found that nearly three in 10 Americans, including 39% of Republicans, agreed that, ‘If elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves, even if it requires violent actions.’ That result was ‘a really dramatic finding,’ says Daniel Cox, director of the AEI Survey Center on American Life. ‘I think any time you have a significant number of the public saying use of force can be justified in our political system, that’s pretty scary.’”