Nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country," according to the survey. This is up from 15% in 2021.
In a statement, PRRI researchers say they have asked about this in "eight separate surveys since March 2021." They said that "this is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%" in their survey results.
While Americans across the political spectrum feel democracy is at risk next year, support for political violence runs mostly along party lines.
Currently one-third of Republicans support violence as a means to save the country, compared with 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats, the survey found. More specifically, Republicans who have favorable views of Donald Trump were found to be "nearly three times as likely as Republicans who have unfavorable views of Trump" to support political violence.
Compared to past surveys, researchers also found an uptick in support for conspiracy theories among Americans — specifically QAnon. According to PRRI, there has been a significant increase in "QAnon believers (from 14% to 23%)," as well as a "a decrease in QAnon rejecters," since 2021. However, Republicans are still twice as likely as Democrats to agree with the core beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
so then wth are we supposed to do to fight against the descent into fascism?
Vote, organize, protest (not entirely legally). If a country falls to fascism or is getting close, there might not be enough the populace can do to stop it or resist. Both examples of Fascist Italy and Germany required outside intervention. We see a LOT of authoritarian countries with little chance at them getting out of it themselves.
Fighting a fascist country is mostly just playing into their hands. You need an organized resistance ready to setup a government that isn't just another authoritarian powerbase. Which is a tall order.
The real way to stop fascism: kill it in the cradle. Don't let it get to the point where a president or chancellor is executing the legislature and taking supreme executive authority.
A good way to stop fascism, is to stop voting for "lesser of two evils." Since that ensures every election creeps closer to fascism.
What do you propose then? The way our system is, there are really only 2 choices.
In a first past the post system, there can only be two parties, this is true. However it doesn't have to be these two Fascist Capitalist parties. Of course voting by itself does almost nothing, but refusing to vote for the two parties of Capital is the absolute least you can do. Who you choose to vote for as long as it is not the two parties of Capital is up to you. If you want to do more, there are plenty of orgs you can get involved in to help build a parallel support structure. Just make sure they aren't a non-profit, or a foundation led by some professional manager. If they are funded by a local government that's decent, if they are funded by a co-op that self-funds some other way, that is even better. But all of them require more effort then voting blue.
If you don't vote then the politicians don't care. They'll see your ambivalence as a sign that you think things are fine. Also look more at local elections more than big ones. They help more than you think. Primaries are where you're actually allow people left of 1980's Republicans get elected. There have been elections where I've been one of the 10 people voting. It really isn't hard to change elections if you're doing it right.
Also aren't most of the book burnings happening in multiple states because of just 10 people. Knowing how to vote and apply pressure is better than making some politician 20 minutes late because you pulled out a valve stem core.