{"id":353008,"date":"2018-03-20T08:10:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T07:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/american-public-troubled-by-deep-state\/"},"modified":"2018-03-20T08:10:01","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T07:10:01","slug":"american-public-troubled-by-deep-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/american-public-troubled-by-deep-state\/","title":{"rendered":"American Public Troubled by ‘Deep State’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Public Troubled by Deep State” is the headline that the Monmouth University Polling Institute tags to its recent poll<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Polling about the term “Deep State” is problematical, because as the polling report says: “Few Americans (13%) are very familiar with the term “Deep State;” another 24% are somewhat familiar, while 63% say they are not familiar with this term.” <\/p>\n

So the careful pollsters at Monmouth defined the term as follows for their interviewees: “The term Deep State refers to the possible existence of a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy.” <\/i> Then they asked whether such a group exists.<\/p>\n

Monmouth reports the results as follows: “Nearly 3-in-4 (74%) say they believe this type of apparatus exists in Washington. This includes 27% who say it definitely exists and 47% who say it probably exists. Only 1-in-5 say it does not exist (16% probably not and 5% definitely not).”<\/i><\/p>\n

Furthermore, these opinions do not follow a partisan divide. The report continues: “Belief in the probable existence of a Deep State comes from more than 7-in-10 Americans in each partisan group, although Republicans (31%) and independents (33%) are somewhat more likely than Democrats (19%) to say that the Deep State\u00a0definitely\u00a0exists.”<\/p>\n

This leads the director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, Patrick Murray, to volunteer: “We usually expect opinions on the operation of government to shift depending on which party is in charge. But there\u2019s an ominous feeling by Democrats and Republicans alike that a \u2018Deep State\u2019 of unelected operatives are pulling the levers of power.” <\/p>\n

In addition, there are some significant but not drastic racial and ethnic differences on this question. Says the Report, “Americans of black, Latino and Asian backgrounds (35%) are more likely than non-Hispanic whites (23%) to say that the Deep State\u00a0definitely<\/i>\u00a0exists.<\/p>\n

The report also asked about government surveillance of the citizenry and here again there is widespread concern: Fully 8-in-10 believe that the U.S. government currently monitors or spies on the activities of American citizens, including a majority (53%) who say this activity is widespread and another 29% who say such monitoring happens but is not widespread. Just 14% say this monitoring does not happen at all. There are no substantial partisan differences in these results.<\/p>\n

This too causes the director of the Institute to be concerned. “This is a worrisome finding. The strength of our government relies on public faith in protecting our freedoms, which is not particularly robust. And it\u2019s not a Democratic or Republican issue. These concerns span the political spectrum,” says director Murray.<\/p>\n

We can add to the concern about a manipulative unelected apparatus at work in the government the widespread distrust of the press summarized in this recent Gallup\/Knight poll<\/a>: <\/p>\n