Sunday, January 02, 2022
Storm on the Capitol as a warning
US citizens fear for democracy
Many US citizens see the storming of the Capitol in Washington as the first major “sign of increasing political violence”. A year later, according to a survey, almost two thirds fear democracy – in a country that remains deeply divided even after the elections.
One year after the storming of the Capitol in Washington by supporters of the then newly elected President Donald Trump, many US citizens believe that democracy in the country is not going well. In a poll published by the broadcaster CBS News, two thirds of those questioned said that US democracy was “threatened”. They therefore regard the storming of the Capitol as a “sign of increasing political violence”.
According to another poll by the Washington Post in collaboration with the University of Maryland, US citizens’ pride in their democratic system has also decreased significantly. Only 54 percent of those surveyed said they were proud of US democracy. In 2002 it was 90 percent.
Further results of the two surveys give specific cause for concern: Compared to CBS News, 28 percent of the respondents stated that the use of force may be necessary to defend the election result. The Washington Post told 34 percent of respondents that violence against the government was sometimes justified.
Trump voters doubt
Once again, the deep division in US society was evident. Two-thirds of Trump voters continue to believe that today’s President Joe Biden was illegally elected and that there was fraud in the 2020 election. Trump himself stubbornly sticks to this portrayal without having yet provided evidence.
Around 60 percent of US citizens – mostly Biden’s electorate – assume that Trump incited his supporters to storm the Capitol with this behavior and is responsible for the violence on January 6, 2021. 83 percent of Trump voters disagree with the poll for the “Washington Post” and around 26 percent of all voters are in favor of the ex-president running again in 2024.