{"id":312832,"date":"2017-06-14T23:03:52","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T22:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=312832"},"modified":"2017-06-15T11:16:09","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T10:16:09","slug":"gallup-finds-stunning-decline-americans-respect-u-s-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/gallup-finds-stunning-decline-americans-respect-u-s-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Gallup Finds Stunning Decline in Americans’ Respect for U.S. Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

On June 9th, Gallup\u2019s Editor-In-Chief, Frank Newport, headlined\u00a0“Americans Want More Than Just Budget Cuts\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and reported that, \u201cGallup’s latest update<\/span><\/a> shows that 28% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the federal government, while 55% have an unfavorable opinion. That’s the lowest rating for any business or industry sector we tested.\u201d Here are the details on that net minus 27% (55% minus 28%) favorability-rating by Americans for \u201cThe federal government\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dr. Newport then points out that, the last time when Gallup had reported about Americans\u2019 opinions of Congress, which was on 28 September 2015,\u00a0“The More Americans Know Congress, the Worse They Rate It\u201d<\/span><\/a>;\u00a0and, specifically, that, whereas only 7% of Americans who answered either 4 or 5 out of five questions about Congress correctly were rating Congress either \u201cExcellent\u201d or \u201cGood,\u201d a far higher 27% of Americans who had answered none<\/i> of the five questions correctly\u00a0were rating Congress either \u201cExcellent\u201d or \u201cGood.\u201d\u00a0 29% of Americans who had answered zero questions correctly were rating Congress as either \u201cPoor\u201d or \u201cBad,\u201d but a far higher 66% of Americans who had answered either 4 or 5 of the questions correctly were rating Congress as \u201cPoor\u201d or \u201cBad.\u201d Consequently, \u201cThe Knowledgeable Are the Most Negative About Congress\u201d according to Gallup\u2019s latest available information, published there.<\/span><\/p>\n

The basic point in Dr. Newport\u2019s June 9th article is that the reason why Americans dislike \u201cThe federal government\u201d isn\u2019t that it\u2019s \u2018too big\u2019 or \u2018spends too much money\u2019 or any of the other excuses that the (widely despised) Republican Party claims, but is instead that, \u201cAmericans think that Congress is corrupt<\/span><\/a> and not focused on the interests of the people. They want their representatives to compromise<\/span><\/a> rather than rigidly stick to principles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By \u201cprinciples\u201d there, might be meant such things as \u2018a balanced budget\u2019 or \u2018cutting spending\u2019 (as Republicans would like to be hearing), but it might also mean \u2018consideration and decent treatment of the poor\u2019 (as Democrats would like to be hearing); and, so, in a survey such as this, it is really meaningless overall.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is far more meaningful was Gallup\u2019s survey about Americans\u2019 perceptions about corruption in Congress<\/span><\/a>: 52% thought that \u201cMost members\u201d of Congress are corrupt, but only 32% thought that their own particular member of Congress is corrupt. Obviously, if the perceptions on that matter had been correct nationwide, and 52% of Congress is corrupt, then 52% of the survey\u2019s respondents should have been saying that their own Representative in Congress is corrupt. In other words: the U.S. public are widely deceived to believe that their own Representative is not corrupt but that a substantial majority (52% saying that Congress is \u201cCorrupt,\u201d versus only 42% saying it\u2019s \u201cNot corrupt\u201d) believe that \u201cCongress\u201d is corrupt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gallup\u2019s 28 September 2015 report about perceptions of Congress made note, also, that there was an extraordinary jump<\/i> in 2006 in the percentage saying that \u201cMost members are corrupt,\u201d from 38% saying that in 2005, up to 47% saying that in 2006. After 2006, the percentages saying that, rose only slightly. Perhaps 2006 was a post-Iraq-invasion syndrome, in which increasing numbers of Americans came to distrust the U.S. government that, in retrospect, had clearly lied and invaded Iraq under false pretenses. The Gallup Poll\u2019s findings about\u00a0Americans\u2019 perceptions regarding the question<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u201cIn general, are you\u00a0satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States\u00a0at this time?\u201d first peaked at 61% right before the invasion, in the poll taken on “3\/3-5\/03\u201d or March 3-5 of 2003, then subsided a bit but finally rose even higher, to 62%, in the poll taken during “8\/22-25\/05\u201d or August 22-15 of 2005, and then it stayed generally above that and briefly soared into the 80s during 2011, but is now in the high 60s, still slightly higher than the post-Iraq-invasion disillusionment period.<\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, what seems clear is that Americans now strongly dislike \u2018our\u2019 federal government and generally consider it to be \u201ccorrupt\u201d or not really \u201cour\u201d government, but instead to be somehow \u201ctheir\u201d government of<\/i> \u201cus.\u201d And, also obviously, if this long-term trend continues, then the American public will be heading into a pre-revolutionary condition, and, beyond that, into a revolutionary one. If the existing long-term trend continues, then the result will be either the overthrow of the U.S. federal government, or else a lock-down of first the Internet and then the public, at a time of already overcrowded prisons. Of course, when there is not space to accommodate additional prisoners, then military compounds become resorted to \u2014 and martial law.<\/span><\/p>\n

No longer is it at all reasonable to characterize the United States as a stable democracy. It\u2019s certainly not stable now; and, also, it\u2019s certainly\u00a0not a democracy<\/span><\/a>. And the present long-term trend is in the wrong direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States is certainly a country that is currently heading into some kind of convulsive transition \u2014 but, certainly, also, an extremely unpleasant transition, even if, somehow, one that can reach a stability which is better, not worse, than that of the earlier, post-WW-II, era of stability. And, of course, if it turns out to be a pre-WW-III transition, then the result will be catastrophic for the entire world.<\/span><\/p>\n

The way that the U.S. federal government has responded to the current transition, up till now, is to\u00a0continue the lies<\/span><\/a>. But there is no certainty that that will continue to work, even for the people at the very top.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, June 14th, CNN bannered \u201cGOP House Whip Steve Scalise in critical condition after shooting at baseball practice\u201d<\/a>,<\/span> and identified \u201cthe alleged shooter as James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois\u201d whose posted \u201cprofile picture is a caricature of Bernie Sanders as Uncle Sam.\u201d Contrary to the norm, that a hard-right Republican does such rabidly anti-government insanities, this particular perpetrator was, if anything, the exact opposite. But the harm was just as random, in either case. \u201cAt least five people including Scalise, the third ranking member of House Republican leadership as the majority whip, were hospitalized.\u201d It\u2019s no longer only Timothy McVeigh<\/span><\/a> types who take their insanities out against a government that they increasingly disrespect. The hostility is becoming increasingly intense on both sides of the political spectrum. Obviously, this is a country that\u2019s moving even farther<\/span><\/a> toward totalitarian rule, away from democracy. Such bombers and gunmen are canaries in a coal mine, even if superficially they don\u2019t seem at all alike. Each one is a sign of the times, and America has slid farther down the slippery slope in our time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org On June 9th, Gallup\u2019s Editor-In-Chief, Frank Newport, headlined\u00a0“Americans Want More Than Just Budget Cuts\u201d\u00a0and reported that, \u201cGallup’s latest update shows that 28% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the federal government, while 55% have an unfavorable opinion. That’s the lowest rating for any business or industry sector we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":312834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[30,1036,96,29,3604,59,804,540,49,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-312832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire","8":"tag-big-brother","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-cover-up","11":"tag-democrats","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-politics-2","15":"tag-republicans","16":"tag-usa-news","17":"tag-warfare","18":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}