I can't actually see how a civil war would work mechanically. The right side of the political divide makes up almost all of the armed forces, first responders, and police; their civilians also own most of the guns; and they control the food supply.<p>Beyond all of that, though, my reading of history is that civil wars usually have a geographic component. So, there is usually one region (that may be home to a different ethnic group) which elevates it's political grievances into actual war. But how would that even work in the United States? This isn't like the US civil war where it was the North against the South. This would be geographically isolated urban cores versus their surrounding suburbs and rural areas.<p>And, finally, I don't think Americans have the stomach for casualties. Life is pretty damned good here. So good that we soured on Iraq and Afghanistan after a few thousand casualties (where we never even had to look at dead bodies, just flag-draped caskets). Somehow I don't see us being okay with the corpses of our dead children littering the streets of Los Angeles or Manhattan.
The only scenario I can see of a civil war happening is if it follows the same template or series of events that occurred in 1860. i.e. Some state or states declare independence and create their own currency. I don't think that is going to happen but nationalized terrorism within seem plausible due to the way some "tribes" are advocating violence against journalists.
The ordering of the questions [0] strikes me as lending to a priming [1] effect, the first two questions evoke memories of media reports of violence on both sides, which makes the leap to civil war seem more likely by the third question.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/questions/pt_survey_questions/june_2018/questions_civil_war_june_21_and_24_2018" rel="nofollow">http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/ques...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)</a>
Great discussion on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8t4py1/would_a_regular_us_citizen_in_1860_be_able_to_see/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8t4py1/would...</a> recently about the lead up to the American civil war and how people were able to see it coming.