Stephan: I have been telling my readers for years that Americans' trust in their government was going through a disastrous decline, and that our democracy was in dire straits. However, even I had not realized how bad this has become. This study by the Pew Research Center lays out the facts. The actual facts as to where our democracy stands.
Last night as I watched the 6 January committee's hearing I went back and forth between CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. What I saw was the presentation of actual facts about the insurrection and the absolute proof that all of this was promoted and directed by Donald Trump. What is hard to understand is how does MAGAt world still not recognize the truth? But, as I watched Tucker Carlson's astonishing lies and distortions of the hearings, I got my answer.
The hard truth is that about a third of the American population are either not smart enough or interested enough to be open to the truth, and this willful ignorance is largely the result of the Fox disinformation operation, and its cousins, like Breitbart, Infowar, Daily Caller and other christofascist anti-democracy disinformation propaganda operations.
I am now convinced that the only way we are going to preserve democracy in this country is if the other two-thirds of us vote and vote only for Democrats. That may sound partisan, but it is not. I have lots of issues with the weakness and lack of coherence in the Democratic Party but, as a party, they still do support democracy, while the Republican Party does not. It is that simple. In November the real issue is: You vote for democracy, or you vote against democracy. Everything else is secondary and of little consequence compared to this fundamental issue. It is up to us.
Americans remain deeply distrustful of and dissatisfied with their government. Just 20% say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time – a sentiment that has changed very little since former President George W. Bush’s second term in office.
The public’s criticisms of the federal government are many and varied. Some are familiar: Just 6% say the phrase “careful with taxpayer money” describes the federal government extremely or very well; another 21% say this describes the government somewhat well. A comparably small share (only 8%) describes the government as being responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans.
The federal government gets mixed ratings for its handling of specific issues. Evaluations are highly positive in some respects, including for responding to natural disasters (70% say the government does a good job of this) and keeping the country safe from terrorism (68%). However, only about a quarter of Americans say the government has done a good job managing the immigration system and helping people get out of poverty (24% each). And the […]
Our Entire Government as a Whole clear to the Jurisdictional System needs an Exersicm…