On the edge ? No. Getting closer via the ‘nudge’ every day ? Oh yeah.

Here are the actual questions and results: http://politics.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/16440-Battleground-65-Civility.pdf

The same poll was conducted in April, so it’s interesting to look at how things changed. This question has more people agreeing with it in April compared to October (that is, people think political, racial, and class divisions are not as bad as they were six months ago), by a 83% to 77% margin:

The political, racial, and class divisions in this country are getting worse and our national dialogue is breaking down.

This one has more people agreeing with it six months later (79% vs. 84%):

I’m tired of leaders compromising my values and ideals. I want leaders who will stand up to the other side

This shows Americans’ growing awareness of the #MediaJackals (28% vs. 34%):

tell me if you think this item is very, somewhat, a little, or not at all responsible for the increase in bad behavior in American politics. Large newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times

But unless there’s a typo somewhere, the civil war results are being misreported. Poll respondents were asked to pick a number between 0 and 100 to represent the state of the nation, with 0 being no political divisions at all, and 100 being on the edge of a civil war. The mean number picked has fallen from 94 in April to 67 in October.

If people are ranking things as 67 out of 100, with 100 being civil war-ish, that isn’t great. But it implies more optimism than 94 out of 100 earlier this year.