Is America Heading Toward Another Civil War? A Third Of Voters Think So

How divided is America? So divided that nearly a third of Americans believe a second civil war is likely in the next five years. According to a recent poll by Rasmussen Reports, 31 percent of U.S. likely voters believe another civil war is on the horizon, while 11 percent believe it is very likely.

There are several reasons why Americans feel this way. “Widespread political polarization on issues like immigration and recent public confrontations of Trump administration officials,”USA Today reported, are among the signs of unrest.

In fact, more than half of the poll respondents said they are concerned that political violence is likely from opponents of President Donald Trump‘s policies, Haaretz reported. According to the data, 59 percent of all voters are concerned that people opposing Trump’s policies will resort to violence.

During President Barack Obama‘s second year as president, a poll found that 53 percent of respondents were concerned about violence from opponents of the president’s policies.

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that separated more than 2,000 children from their parents has received lots of backlash and protests. A Congolese immigrant named Therese Okoumou climbed the Statue of Liberty in protest on Independence Day.

Trump administration staff have faced public confrontation from political opponents. Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant because she worked for Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was greeted with protesters.

Divisions among Americans play out in the streets and media, with more and more incidents highlighted where white people call the police on Blacks for doing legal and everyday things such as waiting at Starbucks or leaving an Airbnb.

The balance of belief that a civil unrest is on the way bears some attention. The poll found that 37 percent of Democrats believed that a civil war was likely versus 32 percent of Republicans.

Here are the results broken down.

• Women and those under the age of 40 are more concerned about the threat of war versus men and older voters.
• 44 percent of Blacks are worried about a civil war, compared to 28 percent of whites and 36 percent of other minority voters.
• Whites are also less concerned by political violence than people of other ethnicities, Haaretz reported.

The survey polled 1,000 likely U.S. voters on the telephone and online from June 21 to June 24 with a sampling error of 3 percentage points.