A man standing in front of the US Congress with a sign in his hand reading Ëœfire Congressâ„¢
Fresh off a year of scandals and partisan wrangling in Washington, Americans begin 2014 with a profoundly negative view of their government and little trust in their system of democracy, a new poll finds.
According to a poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and released on Thursday, half of Americans believe their system of democracy needs either “a lot of changes” or a complete overhaul. Just a meager 1 in 20 said it works well and needs no changes.
After years of disappointment in Washington, Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the direction of their country and have little hope their elected officials can change that.
The percentage of Americans who believe the nation is heading in the right direction has not topped 50 in about a decade, according to the Associated Press.
70 percent of respondents in the new poll reported lack confidence in the US government’s ability “to make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014.”
Healthcare reform, jobs and the economy and the nationâ„¢s debt and deficit were among the most urgent problems Americans said they would “like the government to be working on” in 2014.
This comes about two months after partisan gridlock forced the first government shutdown in 17 years.
A string of end-of-year opinion polls indicated that the American people were not satisfied with their president, government and Congress in 2013.
The botched rollout of President Barack Obamaâ„¢s healthcare law, government shutdown, controversial revelations of NSA surveillance and stalled efforts on gun control and immigration were among the issues which rocked Washington last year.
HJ/HJ
Source: Press TV