A recent survey shows democracy isn’t cutting it for a lot of US citizens anymore. The poll shows that Americans from both sides of the aisle favor shelving democracy and inflicting violence on their opponents, as trust in the government hits new lows. But is there a viable alternative for desperate Americans to another civil war?

On September 17, 1787, as the Founding Fathers were leaving the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia after they had just finished laying the groundwork for the new nation, someone asked Benjamin Franklin, ’Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?’ 

Franklin responded, ’A republic, if you can keep it.’ That sugar-coated warning has never seemed more relevant than today, as the Republicans and Democrats are beginning to show serious contempt not only for their political rivals but for Washington-style democracy itself.

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According to an October poll from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, 31% of Donald Trump supporters and 24% of President Joe Biden supporters believe that democracy is ‘no longer viable’ and that America ’should explore alternative forms of government to ensure stability and progress.’ 

The fact that so many Americans see democracy as a failing enterprise is a troubling sign, especially given that ‘democracy’ constitutes a large part of the American people’s sense of pride and national identity, right up there with baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet (even though the United States is more of a constitutional republic, but don’t tell anybody). When people have lost faith in their national mythologies, nihilism and hopelessness will quickly fill the void.

It would be interesting, and most definitely entertaining, to hear what sort of government the American people would opt for instead of ‘democracy.’ After all, the options are rather limited and not terribly attractive.

Plato, writing in The Republic, described the five main types: aristocracy (rule by the elite minority); timocracy (rule by the military, like in the days of Sparta); oligarchy (rule by the wealthy); democracy (rule by the people); and tyranny (rule by a despot). Judging by the results of the next question in the survey, it appears that many Americans are prepared to succumb to the strong arm of tyranny to resolve their myriad problems.

The Republicans and Democrats have enjoyed a duopoly on power since the Whig president Millard Fillmore left office in 1853. Since then, the two parties have had their share of bad blood between them, no doubt. The main difference between then and now, however, is not only the sheer number of new issues but how radicalized those issues have become.

Just several decades ago, the major disagreements dividing the two parties were abortion rights, civil rights, taxes, war, and a pinch of feminism. Today, the Democrats, once the party of labor and social justice, have thrown their support behind so-called ‘progressive’ issues never heard of before, like an open border, critical race theory, transgenderism, and the promotion of alternative sexual lifestyles found in the LGBTQ+ movement and its 57 (at last count) genders.

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To complicate matters even more, one side in this political showdown owns the bulk of the media, while the other side owns most of the guns. If there were a better way for a country to stumble into a civil war than that, I really don’t know what it is.

Judging by the survey’s responses (and questions), there are many hot-button issues that could ‘go nuclear’ someday. For example, when presented with the statement, ‘the government should have the authority to restrict the number and types of firearms available to the public, irrespective of interpretations of the Constitution.’

When asked whether it is acceptable to employ violence to stop political opponents from achieving their goals, 41% of Biden supporters and 38% of Trump supporters responded in the affirmative. Meanwhile, 41% of Trump supporters and 30% of Biden supporters said they favor either conservative or liberal states seceding from the union.

Anyone with a basic grasp of History 101 knows that America’s last effort at secession culminated in the Civil War (1861-1865) as the Confederate States of America attempted a divorce from Washington. The result was the bloodiest conflict in US history that left up to 850,000 combatants from the Union and Confederate armies dead. Since then, the closest America has had to a ‘secessionist movement’ is in the form of Californians and New Yorkers fleeing their crime-ridden, high-tax states for conservative country, namely Florida and Texas.  

So, what does all this mean? Many people will look at these results and quickly conclude – possibly with great satisfaction – that America is walking into the mother of all divorces, another civil war.

But a lot has changed since 1861. On the one hand, the average American has more to lose, but on the other, there are more outlets for venting disagreements. It is, after all, much easier and safer to shout at your political opponents on X than to take up arms, even if you believe that political violence is acceptable. Besides, you can always just move – to a state that shares your political colors or to even to that fancy ‘American village’ for families of conservative immigrants that’s apparently about to go under construction just outside of Moscow in Russia.

But with new generations after the baby boomers and Gen X becoming poorer and more desperate and moving further in time from experiencing first-hand the horrors of armed conflict, and the political climate getting progressively hotter without any sign of pressure relief ahead, nothing is off the table at this point.

NOTE: Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of ‘Midnight in the American Empire,’ How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream. PLEASE SHARE OUR STORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA