Dec. 4 (UPI) — A Gallup poll published Wednesday shows that majorities of both political parties in the United States think that inflammatory criticism and cruel political rhetoric have gone too far.
Although Americans on each side of the political divide tend to believe the opposite party has gone more overboard, there is broad agreement that political rhetoric is out of hand and that political violence is being driven by growing hostility.
“Larger majorities of Americans than in the past believe that both the Democratic and Republican parties and their supporters have gone too far in using inflammatory language to criticize their opponents,” Jeffrey Jones of Gallup wrote in an analysis of the poll.
When asked if the Republican Party and Republicans have gone too far, 69% of Gallup respondents said yes, a 16-percentage-point increase from 2011, while 60% said that Democrats and their supporters have done so, a nine percentage-point-increase.
Additionally, Gallup reports that members of both parties are now “nearly unanimous” in believing the other party has gone too far with it’s rhetoric — 94% of Democrats say Republicans have gone too far, with 93% of Republicans saying the same about Democrats.
Conversely, “partisans are disinclined to believe their own part has gone too far with it’s rhetoric and are no more likely now than in 2011 to hold this view,” Gallup found.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 1 and 16, a few weeks after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University in September.
Gallup said it used questions similar to what it asked in a poll 14 years ago, after former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot during a 2011 political event.
Another question on factors that may cause political violence found that 71% of Americans blame the spread of extremist viewpoints online, 64% attribute “a great deal” of blame to politicians and political commentators and 52% look to failures by the mental health system.
Just under half of Americans, 45%, said easy access to guns is to blame, and less than a third blamed drug use, security in public buildings or violence in entertainment for the seeming uptick in political violence.
Overall, Gallup notes that in 2011 slim majorities of either party thought that the parties had been going too far in how they criticize each other.
“The beliefs are more common now,” Jones wrote. “Americans view inflammatory rhetoric, along with the spread of extremist views on the Internet, as the two factors most to blame for political violence in the country.”
“While partisans are reluctant to blame their own side for going too far with the tone of their political rhetoric, they are generally in agreement on the major factors contributing to political violence in the United States.”
