Steve Benen and Markos Moulitsas are emphasizing the partisan breakdown in this CBS poll asking whether violence against the government is ever justified:
Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to take violent action against the government, or is it never justified?
Republican 28% yes, 64% no
Democrat 11% yes, 81% no
Independent 11% yes, 81% no
I think Benen has the right reaction when he states, "If we're willing to entertain fantastical imaginations, maybe some respondents could envision a day in which the existing U.S. government is dissolved and replaced with some kind of autocratic tyrant, at which point a rebellion could be warranted." I think that likely explains the low percentages of people who actually think violence against the government is justified -- there are a relatively small number of people willing to entertain masturbatory survivalist fantasies, and a larger proportion of those people tend to be Republican. I think the numbers would be much lower given a more specific question.
Again, given how much less legitimate political violence is today than in the past, I don't think it's anything to get alarmed about, but some people obviously need to turn off the TV.
