Welcome to the Daily Article Podcast for Thursday, September 1st, 2022.

I'm Chris Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating today's article written by Dr. Jim Denison.

A new poll asked Americans about changes in the U.S. political climate, including whether divisions have worsened and what they expect for the future.

Here were their responses.

66% believe political divisions have gotten worse since the beginning of 2021.

62% expect political divisions to get even worse in the future.

66% say political violence has increased since worse in the future. Sixty-six percent say political violence

has increased since the start of 2021. 60 percent expect such violence to increase in the next few

years. Here's the most sobering part of the report. A plurality, 43 percent, believes a civil war

is at least somewhat likely in the next decade.

Only 35% say it's not likely.

22% are unsure.

Of course, conditions are markedly different today than they were in 1861,

when the South and the North were contiguous geographical entities, each dominated by a single

party, Republicans in the North, Democrats in the South. By contrast, today's electoral map

indicates blue coasts in a red middle, but many states are experiencing deep internal divisions.

In Texas, for instance, Austin is clearly

blue, while West Texas is clearly red. If our state attempted to secede from the union,

I'm not sure which side would lead the effort or what the other side would do if secession were

successful. Electoral maps reveal similar divisions in Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan,

among other states.

And it is a surprising fact that in the 2020 election, Donald Trump received more votes in California,

...