Poll: Majority of Americans believe political rhetoric has gone too far

Most Americans believe political rhetoric has gone too far. So found a recent Gallup survey that compared results with 2011 and showed a significant increase among those who perceive public discourse as too inflammatory.

The poll, conducted in mid-October, found that 69% of Americans believe the Republican Party is using very aggressive speech, while 60% perceive the same of the Democratic Party.

These numbers represented increases of 16 percentage points for Republicans and 9 for Democrats, compared with responses in 2011. At that time, the poll had been conducted shortly after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, also the wife of now-Senator Mark Kelly, was shot.

This time, the question was asked in a year of high political tension, marked by the murders of Charlie Kirk and two Minnesota state legislators.

When it came to analyzing what the most politicized Americans think, the poll found that both Republicans and Democrats are "almost unanimously convinced that the other party has gone too far with its rhetoric and are much more likely to think this than they were in 2011."

"Ninety-four percent of Democrats, compared with 74% in 2011, now say Republicans and their supporters have gone too far, and 93% of Republicans (vs. 63% in 2011) say the same about Democrats and their supporters," Gallup noted.

However, both Republicans and Democrats do not acknowledge that their own parties have crossed a line in terms of discourse.

What about independents? Same sentiment. They are now also more likely to think both parties have gone too far discursively. The poll showed a 22-point increase for Republicans (74%) and a 14-point increase for Democrats (62%). In short, they perceive Republicans as using more inflammatory rhetoric than Democrats.

What is the main cause of political violence?

The same survey asked Americans what they recognized as the main causes of political violence within the parties.

In a range of seven options, the top three choices were the following:

Fourth place went to "easy access to firearms," the issue that most divided along partisan lines. While 74% of Democrats credit guns with a high component of violence, only 14% of Republicans share their view.

Among Republicans, the three most-mentioned issues were the same as those chosen by independents. On the opposite side of the aisle, Democrats placed guns in second place, displacing politician-speak to third place.

"In 2011, slim majorities of Americans agreed that both the Republicans and Democrats and supporters of the two parties had gone too far in using inflammatory language to criticize their opponents. Those beliefs are more common now. And Americans view inflammatory rhetoric, along with the spread of extremist views on the internet, as the two factors most to blame for political violence in the country," Gallup concluded on its survey results.