The fear that once belonged to the fringes of American politics has now settled squarely in the middle. Across age, ideology, and party lines, Americans are growing uneasy about the future of their most basic freedoms — particularly the right to speak and the right to be safe while doing so. A new AP-NORC poll finds that half the country believes freedom of speech faces a major threat, and four in ten say the same about freedom of the press. What is striking is not just the number of people who feel this way, but how broadly the anxiety spans the political spectrum.
The findings come in a year already stained by political violence, from the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah to the killing of Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband. These tragedies, which claimed lives on opposite ends of the ideological divide, might have prompted a shared sense of alarm. Instead, they have reinforced a troubling symmetry: Democrats worry about violence against liberals, Republicans about violence against conservatives, and independents, the supposed middle ground, mostly withdraw into fatigue or indifference. Roughly four in ten Americans say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about political violence, while nearly a third admit they are not concerned at all.
That generational indifference may be the most revealing shift. Adults under 30 are markedly less worried about both political violence and threats to free speech than older generations, suggesting a fading expectation that disagreement should stop short of danger. About half of older Americans express high concern about political violence, compared with only three in ten younger adults. A similar divide exists when it comes to free speech: older respondents see it as under siege, while younger ones seem resigned to the limits already imposed by partisanship, social media moderation, and cultural polarization. This gap reflects not just differing experiences of violence or censorship, but differing beliefs about whether institutions — political, educational, or digital — can still be trusted to protect those rights.
The poll reveals another divide that may prove even more corrosive. When Americans say they are worried about “threats to free speech,” what they mean often depends on who is speaking. About six in ten Republicans are very concerned about threats to conservatives, while six in ten Democrats express the same worry for liberals. This symmetry hides a shared blind spot: each side champions free speech primarily for its own team. That kind of selective defense undermines the very principle both claim to defend. The irony is that both camps are correct. Freedom of speech and of the press are under threat but the danger lies as much in mutual distrust as in external censorship.
Globally, the United States is not alone in facing this tension. Democracies across Europe and Asia have seen similar fractures, where populist movements, disinformation, and economic inequality erode trust in open discourse. But America’s challenge is unique in scale. The nation that once exported the ideal of free expression now finds itself struggling to preserve it at home. The growing fear of violence, paired with the partisan ownership of rights, signals a country at risk of forgetting that constitutional freedoms are not zero-sum.
If the public’s concern is justified — and recent events suggest it is — then the greater threat may be cultural rather than institutional. When citizens begin to expect violence as the price of participation or view opposing voices as enemies to be silenced, democracy itself begins to falter. The poll’s results are more than a snapshot of national mood; they are a warning that the foundational trust required for self-government is weakening.
The United States still holds one of the most robust constitutional frameworks in the world, yet laws alone cannot safeguard liberties that citizens no longer agree to uphold for one another. Around the world, democracies that lose faith in civil dialogue tend to drift toward instability or authoritarian control. The question facing America now is not whether free speech can survive government overreach, but whether it can endure the growing intolerance within its own people.
Go beyond the headlines…
Many concerned about political violence and threats to free speech across the ideological spectrum
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