Two Out Of Five Say America Is Heading Toward Civil War In The Next Decade. What Does That Look Like?
Aug. 30 2022, Published 11:14 a.m. ET
Two in five Americans believe that America is heading for a civil war — and expect it in the next 10 years, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Republicans were more likely than Democrats to believe that the country is headed for division.
The figure was included in a recent survey by the Economist and YouGov. The poll asked people about the changing political climate.
About 66 percent of people said the political division in the country has gotten worse since the start of 2021, according to the survey. A mere 8 percent said that the country has grown less divided.
Few anticipate it will get better in the future, with 62 percent expecting the political divide to grow.
Headlines frequently show the division in the country with Republicans targeting Democrats and Democrats blasting Republicans. There have been politically inspired investigations and threats of more.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump at the center of much of the division.
That has led three in five Americans to say they believe there will be an increase in political violence in the next few years. Only 9 percent expect a drop in politically inspired attacks in the immediate future.
Overall, about 43 percent said they believe that a civil war will break out in the next decade, while 35percent said it’s not very likely.
Among people identifying as "strong" Republicans, about 54 percent said they believe there will be a civil war in the next 10 years. On the "strong" Democrat side, about 40 percent of people expect a civil war in the near future.
"I don't think we'd end up in the kind of conflict that we had between the states — the Union and the Confederacy — back in the day," Historian Fiona Hill recently told Insider. "But people's sense of the civil and civic ways of resolving disputes are out the window."
Fellow historian Barbara F. Walter discussed what civil wars look like with the Washington Post. She described a more modern conflict facing America.
“What we’re heading toward is an insurgency, which is a form of a civil war. That is the 21st-century version of a civil war, especially in countries with powerful governments and powerful militaries, which is what the United States is,” Walter told the Post.
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“Sometimes they coordinate their behavior. They use unconventional tactics. They target infrastructure. They target civilians. They use domestic terror and guerrilla warfare. Hit-and-run raids and bombs. We’ve already seen this in other countries with powerful militaries.”
