Four in five fear US sliding into chaos, survey finds

WASHINGTON — People in the United States fear their country is spiraling out of control following an assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, with worries growing that the Nov 5 election could spark more political violence, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The two-day poll that closed on Tuesday found Trump opening a marginal lead among registered voters — 43 percent to 41 percent — over Democratic US President Joe Biden, an advantage that was within the poll's 3 percentage point margin of error, suggesting the attempt on Trump's life had not sparked a major shift in voter sentiment.

However, 80 percent of voters, including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans, said they agreed with a statement that "the country is spiraling out of the control".

The poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,202 adults nationwide, including 992 registered voters.

Trump narrowly avoided death on Saturday when a would-be assassin's bullet grazed his ear as he spoke at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. A rally attendee was killed and two others seriously injured.

The shooting brought back memories of turbulent political periods such as the 1960s, when Democratic president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, followed by the killing of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

Some 84 percent of voters in the poll said they were concerned that extremists will commit acts of violence after the election, an increase from the results of a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May that showed 74 percent of voters having that fear.

Fears of political violence became more prominent in the US after thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn Trump's election loss to Biden. Four people died on the day of the attack, and one Capitol Police officer who fought against the rioters died the next day.

While respondents said they feared violence, few condoned it. Just 5 percent of respondents said it was acceptable for someone in their political party to commit violence to achieve a political goal, down from 12 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll from June last year.

Acts of violence

Some 67 percent of respondents in the latest poll said they were concerned about acts of violence against their community because of their political beliefs, compared with 60 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll from June last year. Bipartisan majorities in the latest poll said they were concerned that people could resort to violence instead of coming together peacefully to solve disagreements.

The attempt on Trump's life has dominated media headlines and fueled discussion among some of his conservative Christian supporters that he was protected by God.

In the latest poll, 65 percent of registered Republicans said Trump's survival showed he was "favored by divine providence or God's will".Eleven percent of Democrats agreed.

The US stands out among rich countries for its embrace of religion, with evangelical Christians largely aligned with the Republican Party in recent decades. Some 77 percent of people in the US surveyed in 2022 said they believed in God, compared with 56 percent of Canadians and 39 percent of British respondents, according to a poll by Gallup International Association.

Agencies via Xinhua