Jonathan Turley flags changing democracy views
- Legal commentator Jonathan Turley used an April 28 column to argue new polling shows Americans are growing more divided over democracy and political violence. - The sharpest figure came from Pew: 85% of U.S. adults said politically motivated violence is increasing, even as partisans blamed opposite extremes. - PRRI found only small minorities justify violent acts, but younger adults were less likely to reject them outright. (prri.org)
Jonathan Turley argued on April 28 that recent survey data shows a harder edge in Americans’ views of democracy, civic norms, and political violence. (jonathanturley.org) Turley’s column pointed to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, and Pew Research Center, both released in the past year. He framed the findings as evidence that more Americans now see force, intimidation, or extra-legal tactics as thinkable in politics. (jonathanturley.org) (prri.org) (pewresearch.org) Pew reported in October 2025 that 85% of Americans said politically motivated violence in the United States was increasing. In that same survey, 77% of Republicans called left-wing extremism a major problem, while 76% of Democrats said the same about right-wing extremism. (pewresearch.org) PRRI’s January 2026 survey found broad concern about what drives violence, with 67% blaming political leaders’ failure to condemn violent rhetoric and 64% citing false or misleading information generated by artificial intelligence. It also found 61% pointing to public displays of hate symbols, and 53% each citing easy access to guns and harsh political language. (prri.org) The same PRRI report found that support for direct violent acts remained low, even as anxieties about violence stayed high. Twelve percent said imprisoning a political opponent without trial could be justified if that person posed a clear danger, 7% said the same about destroying property in protest, and 5% said the same about killing a political opponent under that condition. (prri.org) PRRI also found age differences. Americans over 50 were much more likely to completely reject harsh or violent actions for political ends, while adults under 30 were less likely to rule them out categorically. (prri.org) Turley’s argument goes beyond the topline numbers. He tied the polling to a broader claim that democratic culture depends on losing elections, tolerating opponents, and rejecting revenge as a political tool. (jonathanturley.org) Not all research shows a surge in willingness to commit violence itself. A January 2025 peer-reviewed study in *Injury Epidemiology* found that from 2023 to 2024, support for violence to advance at least one political objective was essentially unchanged, at 26.2% in 2024 versus 25.3% in 2023, with little to no change in willingness to damage property, injure, or kill. (springer.com) That leaves a narrower, but still serious, picture in the data: Americans widely believe political violence is rising, sharply disagree on who is responsible, and mostly stop short of endorsing violence themselves. Turley used that gap to argue that the country’s democratic stress is showing up first in perceptions, blame, and tolerance for harder rhetoric. (pewresearch.org) (prri.org) (jonathanturley.org)
