Fueled by growing divisions, political violence has escalated across the United States in recent years.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Jan. 6, 2021 is a day etched in U.S. history, as supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in a failed attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden.
Since the riot, over 1,500 individuals have been criminally indicted in federal court. Trump, who once described the rioters as "great patriots," pledged to pardon them on his first day in office, Time magazine reported.
Four years later, political polarization and violence continue to plague the United States.
Gallup's 2024 report reveals that 80 percent of U.S. adults believe the country is deeply divided on core values, a sharp increase from 77 percent in 2016 and over 10 percentage points higher than earlier measurements in 2004 and 2012.
"Polarization" was chosen as the word of 2024 by the U.S. dictionary Merriam-Webster and a 2023 Pew Research Center poll found that the term "divisive" most commonly describes U.S. politics today.
Further data from Pew reveals that 64 percent of Americans consider the divide between Republicans and Democrats a "major problem," with both parties viewing each other as a significant threat to the nation's well-being.
Fueled by growing divisions, political violence has escalated across the United States in recent years.
In October 2022, a man broke into the home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco and attacked her husband with a hammer. In June 2023, a Jan. 6 defendant was arrested while attempting to breach the home of former President Barack Obama. In August 2023, an armed man, accused of threatening President Biden, was fatally shot during an FBI raid in Utah. Additionally, in July 2024, an attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, shocked the nation.
From 2022 to 2023, the Department of Justice prosecuted 27 threats against members of Congress, as reported by Foreign Policy.
Political violence has targeted not only political leaders but also ethnic minorities. In recent years, mass shootings have struck communities across the United States. For example, a racially motivated hate crime in New York in 2022 left 10 African Americans dead at the hands of a gunman.
Violent protests erupted from both the right and the left, further deepening societal divides. Following the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in October 2023, anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents surged.
About 18 percent of Americans believe that political violence may be justified to "save" the country, an increase from 15 percent in 2021, said the 2024 American Values Survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute.
Looking ahead, a third of U.S. adults express very little confidence in the country's future, according to a Pew Research Center report in 2023.
"Imagine how polarized the country will be when our president talks about extremes? This of course affects each of us individually. Our democracy is being harmed. So I think the next four years would be worse," Alieen Breadley, a designer from New York City, told Xinhua.■