Most Americans Have Lost Faith in Our Political System. It’s Time to Change It.
Recent polling shows that most Americans have little to no faith in our political system and an increasing number disapprove of both major parties. It’s high time for the Left to champion reforms to our electoral system.
People watch the final US presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden outside Cowell Theater in San Francisco, California. (Liu Guanguan / China News Service via Getty Images)
Last month, the Pew Research Center released the results of a new national study, titled “Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics.” It might as well be called “The United States’ Dismal Politics Alienates Most Americans.”
According to Pew, just 4 percent of Americans say our political system is working well while 63 percent have little or no confidence in it. Nearly a supermajority describe politics as “exhausting,” while only 26 percent of Americans hold positive views about the quality of candidates for public office.
These findings are not all that surprising. In a country that’s home to more billionaires than any other while the majority of Americans can’t afford a $400 emergency, it doesn’t take a political scientist to notice that something is fundamentally wrong with this picture — and most Americans do.
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