1) What does civil unrest mean to you?
I think what we usually miss about stuff like that is that even during a fully-fledged war (which probably isn't coming to the US any time soon), only a small percentage of the population is involved in any direct hostilities. The rest is just trying to get by, and the most significant challenge is not 360-no-scoping the stormtroopers, but putting food on the table.
If you accept that premise, then I think it's true for widespread social unrest, too. There is some very small chance that the drama could come to your doorstep. But for most part, you just get to live with the externalities, which probably include a general decline in the availability and quality of basic services, the government getting more thuggish, etc.
2) How will it affect your current livelihood?
Hard to know. It shouldn't, directly, but I'm in an industry that's likely to take sides, and then the situation could devolve in some way.
3) What are you prepping (as far as supplies, learned skills, etc)?
Nothing out of the ordinary. My basic approach is that no specific single scenario is particularly likely, so no point in acquiring hyper-specialized preps. But, I have some general plans that would enable me to deal semi-gracefully with things like not being able to get groceries, or having to evacuate by car.
4) How long of a period are you preparing for?
For this specific hazard, see above. In general, we have supplies for about 3 months w/o groceries or running water, savings for longer, and a rural property we could go to if we decided it's unsafe to stay in the city.
5) I see posts where people talk about bugging in... Is this due to concerns of safety, or are you concerned about some sort of martial law restrictions?
Bugging in is generally the best choice 95% of the time, at least for people for whom "bugging out" is not a shorthand for "we'll take a private helicopter to our summer mansion". If there is no imminent danger to your home, why expose yourself to uncertainty and leave most supplies behind?
6) Could civil unrest lead to supply chain disruptions?
Sure, but probably not the kind of civil unrest we're thinking of here. I mean, if we mean young people torching police departments, rather than some sort of a widespread labor strike...
It could lead to localized disruptions, in the sense that if your local grocery store burns down, or if trucks can't safely enter the city... you might have to live off your supplies for a while.
7) Do you think things will return to some semblance of normal, or escalate until the full collapse of society as we know it?
What things? The current stuff? I have some worst-case predictions, but in all likelihood, it will die down eventually. By and large, people still have it good, and there's only so much they want to risk to get the outcome they want.
8) What, if anything, can prevent civil unrest, in your opinion?
Honestly, I think there is this common arc for societies, where they are unified by a common and just cause... and then sort of drift apart during the periods of calm... so on some level, we probably need a unifying cause, the way that WWII was. Sadly, many of the great unifying causes tend to be pretty morbid - unprecedented natural disasters, epic wars...
But I think that basically, for people to stop winding themselves up and going at each other, we need an external enemy, and we did not have one since the fall of the Soviet Union. The brief moment of unity post-9/11 was squandered in part because the enemy... just kinda wasn't there: we were bombing some low-tech, poorly organized guerrilla fighters in faraway lands, with more flashbacks to Vietnam than WWII.
9) Should folks outside of the city be concerned?
In a general sense, sure, because hyper-partisan politics and all that shit aren't good for the country. In terms of riots in your backyard, probably not...
10) Any possible chain reactions? Power outages, mandatory curfew, martial law, economic collapse?
Sure. But probably not the most likely scenario.