Poll: 7 in 10 say U.S. ‘on the edge of civil war’

As the Trump administration continues to hammer the Washington D.C. political establishment and defy the “bipartisan compromise” that has brought the federal government to its present state of corruption, a new national poll has found partisan political division and the resulting “incivility” has reached a new high in America, with 67 percent of respondents believing that the United States is nearing actual civil war.

“The majority of Americans believe that we are two-thirds of the way to being on the edge of civil war. That to me is a very pessimistic place,” said Mo Elleithee, executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. The political division is likely to make the upcoming 2020 presidential race the nastiest in modern history, he said in announcing the results of the Institute’s Battleground Poll civility survey.

Voters are angered with compromise, and vilify President Trump on one side and most 2020 Democratic presidential candidates on the other. Elleithee said the poll paints “a picture of a highly negative campaign that will continue to exacerbate the incivility in our public discourse … “It will be a sort of race to the bottom, or has the potential to be a race to the bottom.”

The Civility Poll is an offshoot of the famous bipartisan Battleground Poll conducted by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners and Ed Goeas of the Tarrance Group.

While the poll found that 87 percent are frustrated with rudeness in politics today, it also revealed that respondents weren’t interested in traditional compromise. For example, a nearly equal 84 percent said that they are “tired of leaders compromising my values and ideals.”

The pollsters noted that the public blames social media, the news media, and President Trump for the growing division.