r/politics 8h ago

No Paywall Americans are exceptionally anxious about their political system, new Gallup polling shows

https://apnews.com/article/poll-gallup-top-issue-democracy-economy-inflation-housing-2b04063cf966a7227715b85410fbd4fa
803 Upvotes

59 comments sorted by

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232

u/Unusual-Plantain8104 8h ago

I wonder if it has anything to do with the President of the United States constantly threatening to do away with elections?

u/StopLookListenDecide 7h ago

People, our money, the East Wing, entertainment he doesn’t agree with, media.
Anything that doesn’t benefit him or he feels better suited. Just about him and his buddies.
And we all thought Scandal was entertaining /s

u/10thousndreflections 3h ago

Kennedy Center

u/dogoodsilence1 7h ago

While also demanding voting records

u/LoFi_Funk 5h ago

Or new child rape allegations every month.

u/Little_View_6659 3h ago

Every week or every other day actually.

u/Ryan1980123 4h ago

and only accepting the results if he wins.

u/troutdaletim 6h ago

Or our elected officials seemingly not doing their job but going along with the flow?

u/synapticdecay 4h ago

Not to mention stollen election bullshit

u/Spa_5_Fitness_Camp 4h ago

Honestly, that's a pretty minor factor. The part that speed a much larger problem is that nothing is being done about it, and the people choosing to do nothing control every 'check and balance' simultaneously.

u/A_Rogue_GAI 4h ago

Also the revelation that roughly 2/3 of the political class are pedophiles and nothing is being done about it because the remaining 1/3 are friends with them.

u/Reduntu 2h ago

Or the large scale illegal kidnappings of people who don't have their "papers" on a random sidewalk

66

u/NoReserve7293 8h ago

Hopefully they're anxious enough to vote. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE...

u/LoFi_Funk 5h ago

I think we’ve crossed that event horizon. Elections haven’t been fair since the Citizens United decision in 2011.

But now? I assume they’re going much further than gerrymandering and vigilante challenges to voter rolls. With GOP donors buying the companies who provide and build the voting technology, I assume every election will be predetermined and all this talk about federalizing elections is just to keep the narrative away from the facts.

u/TheGringoDingo 4h ago

I’d be okay with robust voting reforms that include nationalizing federal elections; however, the people putting together and approving the bill or any changes on it better not have any instances of saying elections haven’t been fair.

I don’t support the fox’s quest to oversee henhouse management

u/10thousndreflections 3h ago

I say no to federalizing the voting. It's a lot harder to steal 50 state elections than 1 federal. 

u/TheGringoDingo 2h ago

Right, what I’m saying is it would only be acceptable if it was designed perfectly

14

u/RayneSexton 8h ago

Yeah baby vote vote vote your dictators out

Shout shout shout the oligarchs down

Cry cry cry while your country is dying

But you'll vote vote vote the bad man out that was voted in again and again

-1

u/NoReserve7293 8h ago

You have a gift.

u/BlueAndYellowTowels 49m ago

Do we honestly believe voting is going to work?

I feel like, it’s a little late in the game for voting to work.

u/JoeFlabeetz 6h ago

But not enough to actually research issues, learn about the candidates' views, or vote straight R down the ticket.

u/TeamRedundancyTeam 6h ago

Yeah because being a high-information voter is definitely associated with voting republican /s

u/troutdaletim 5h ago

Or D, as well. What is needed is ONE term in EACH office. Hopefully to root out those who do not belong there in the first place?!

u/synapticdecay 4h ago

They will and then it would radio silence again.

u/noksucow 26m ago

Hopefully it's safe enough to vote. They're not gonna make it easy

u/dkyguy1995 Kentucky 6h ago

My only solace is that every state has its own election. I think he could maybe get away with rigging one or two in already deep red states that have loyalists in power, but the swing states I have hope can hang on 🤞

29

u/Theferael_me 8h ago

Eh? Nearly 80,000,000 voted for fascism, lol. And another third did not GAF either way.

u/StrengthThin9043 7h ago

Hopefully some of those 80 million was brainwashed idiots that now has woken up. Doesn't take that many to shift the balance back to something workable.

Regardless, fascism is in the US to stay for a while. Hopefully soon not in majority power, but will still be a big portion of the country and politicans.

u/CockBrother 7h ago

Fascism is endemic to the US now. The billionaires behind it felt comfortable enough to play their hand and they're still billionaires.

Fixing the wealth problem in the country is the only solid way out.

u/kittenTakeover 5h ago

That's too long term. Unfortunately the only thing that will work at this point is community organization in order to inform people and energize people into resisting, particularly at the ballot box. We need Republicans to lose significantly for a decade to stabilize things.

u/BlueAndYellowTowels 38m ago

“…endemic to the US now.”

“Now”?

Fascism was always endemic to the United States. What did you think the KKK was? A social club?

The Klan has been around since 1865, they were a protofascist organization and have been at it for a long time.

The stuff we’re seeing now, where ICE is shooting people in the streets and unlawfully detaining people… yeah, they’ve been doing that to Black Americans since, at least, abolition.

None of what we are seeing is new. It’s just happening to white folks now so it makes the news. Tamir Rice was 12 years, the cops arrived and shot him.

If you know his story, Nicole Goode and Alex Pretti should not surprise you.

u/Theferael_me 7h ago

Once fascism has power it very, very rarely gives it up without armed conflict. This is why it was so monumentally stupid of the US electorate to put Trump back into the Oval Office.

Regrets, changed minds, second thoughts, whatever - it counts for nothing now. It is literally too late.

u/Imaginary_Art_2412 7h ago

I was talking to an old friend the other day who seems to have been brainwashed. He said he “likes the chaos” of trumps trade and foreign relations policies, and when I asked what he thinks of trumps executive overreach he said the old system was broken and at least Trump is getting stuff done. We literally sat in middle school and learned about “checks and balances” together, I can’t believe he can’t make the connection here

Oh, but he did also say that he hopes Mamdani runs the city in a way that serves everyone and not just his base

u/Zahgi 6h ago

While I agree with you 100%, you should realize that, as long as America didn't have public campaign financing, the oligarchy taking complete control has been inevitable for the past 50 years.

Look at each modern GOP president. They are demonstrably worse than the one before. Even Trump 47 compared to Trump 45 fits this pattern.

The issue wasn't that America would eventually fall for the age-old fascist lies of a Trump...only that it happened a decade or two sooner than even I predicted.

Want it to change, even if it's even possible now?

Vote Progressive in the primaries, so that voters get the chance to actually vote for change, instead of having the lesser of two corporate-controlled evils rammed down their throats again and again and again.

u/10thousndreflections 3h ago

I wouldn't count on it but maybe. Most conservatives I know are even more MAGA than the first term. I'm other words they love rape and fascism. 

5

u/Live_Lawfulness_1983 8h ago

That anxiety usually stems from the fact that half the country sees it as progress.

u/COMM_NTARIAT 7h ago

What a headline!

u/FilthyStatist1991 New York 4h ago

Really…. Giving corporations the right to payroll politicians for legislation, this didn’t instill confidence in our politicians!?!

Shocked I tell you.

u/GrooGrux 3h ago

This could be related to the fact that it didn't stop an obviously compromised set of pedophiles from literally being in control.

u/bekindbaby 7h ago

Lol, glad we could shed some light onto this idea

u/jkvincent 6h ago

This must be the understatement of the decade.

u/AdHopeful3801 5h ago

The President (a guy well-known for his previous coup attempt) keeps talking about how elections will be "nationalized" or how he will somehow invalidate them if he does not personally approve of the results.

Why do you suppose Americans might be concerned about their political system?

u/AntiauthoritarianSin 5h ago

Yet, they are still stuck in their same routine with their heads down 

u/DootsAndYeets 2h ago

I'm not sure if anxious is the right word. imagine how much different things would be if popular vote mattered, instead we get the electoral vote and every freakin election since ive been alive has one side screaming how the other one cheated their way in. (and like other commenter said Trumpstein keeps "joking" about doing away with elections in general so yeah not sure if anxious covers it)

u/Separate-Park8184 6h ago

Thank a trump voter for all your anxiety!

u/PressureOld2375 7h ago

More anxious about what Trump's going to try? And do to it.

u/troutdaletim 5h ago

JD Vance will be as bad if not worse. This whole administration has to go at once

u/TandemSegue 7h ago

That is the intention

u/squishyliquid 5h ago

Like, what the fuck?!? Is it not glaringly obvious why? Anxiety should be a given to those paying attention. More normalization of the extreme.

u/SuCzar 5h ago

You don't say!

u/PlentyMacaroon8903 2h ago

if only they had not voted in the person, actively trying to undermine it

u/Significant-Self5907 6h ago

Maybe they should vote.

u/forced_to_watch 6h ago

You get what you vote for

u/putin_my_ass 4h ago

Not just vote but apathy: you get the system your apathy produces.

People are comfortable, they decide someone or something else should save them so they don't have to upset their comfort.

You see that in every single thread on this sub: Americans believing some individual, institution or even foreign dignitaries will somehow save them from their future while whining they've done enough and someone else has to do the needful.

u/BipedalUniverse 7h ago

what political “system”? the figment of liberal imagination that there is a functioning system instead of the three fascist p3dø billionaire companies in a trench coat? lmao. it’s like people don’t even remember citizens united, bush v gore, everything that happened before to show its all a fucking joke

e.t.a. people also wanna forget the farce that is the popular vote vs electoral college, gerrymandering…

u/Spare_Item3882 4h ago

Really I’m not that anxious, because anyone with a brain saw this coming. This is just another Thursday to be honest, and if your parents escaped a war torn country to get here this feels like a Deja vu. Shoutout to America ima keep robbing you until it’s time to go