The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Jan. 11, 2024
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
With America’s polarization, a special-interest driven Congress, a former President with 91 criminal indictments, a compromised U.S. Supreme Court, and rogue state legislatures, a newly updated Gallup poll shows satisfaction with American democracy plunged to just 28%, a 40-year low.
In December 2023, Gallup asked just over 1,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states, “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in this country?” In the nine previous polls since the question’s inception in 1984, satisfaction has plunged from 61% and 60% in 1984 and 1991, to 35% in 2021, and now 28% in 2023.
Democrats, Republicans and independents are all less satisfied than they were in 2021. Democrats dropped from 47% in 2021 to 38% in the latest survey. Independents dropped from 36% to 27%, and Republicans dropped from 21% to 17%.
In 1998, long before former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of a rigged system and widespread voter fraud, conservative Americans were big supporters of American Democracy, with 67% of Republicans saying they were satisfied with it.
Perhaps suggesting democracy serves college-educated Americans better than Americans who are not, over a third of college-educated Americans were satisfied with our democratic system, while among those with only a high school education, only 21% were satisfied.
We have a link to the Gallup survey at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Gallup – Record Low in U.S. Satisfied With Way Democracy Is Working
The Hill – American satisfaction with democracy at record low: Gallup
Pew Research Center – (2023) Public Trust in Government: 1958-2023
CNN – (2023) Americans are broadly unsatisfied with the state of things in the US, poll finds
Groups Taking Action:
Protect Democracy, Public Citizen, League of Women Voters US, States United Democracy Center, Declaration for American Democracy
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