edition.cnn.com/2023/04/29/politics/state-of-the-nation-poll-economy/index.html
Why are so many Americans unhappy with the state of the US today?
Out of DateWhy are so many Americans unhappy with the state of the US today? Two words: Citizens United.
My Two Words: MAGA Asshats
Corrupt SCOTUS who is breaking the laws and precedents set by their predecessors and not in a way that helps Americans, convicted felon running for President with multiple other charges pending trial where he has yet to see justice, a corrupt judge slow rolling an obvious guilty case regarding national security, high prices without any help from the government to regulate or look into record profits, the media looking for profit than truth and not holding people accountable, and GOP states actively taking rights away and making life more difficult than actually looking at making the majority life better.
Yeah, there’s a cancer in the US called the Republican party.
Dems have their issues too, but I’d rather their issue is being too old to run this country than what is actively happening with the GOP.
Nailed it.
I TOTALLY understand your point of view. As I've said in other comments, it seems that you have to choose between the plague or the cholera and that in reality you're going to vote not out of conviction for a candidate, but out of obligation.
It's exactly the same thing in Europe, where in recent years we've found ourselves having to vote for the "least worst" candidate, and generally voting AGAINST the fascist/right-wing candidate.
No, I like what Biden has done: Infrastructure bill, climate change action, student debt relief, the CHIPS act, the effective strategy against inflation.
It's not just that I would crawl across broken glass to vote against MAGA and Project 25. I see results.
Really the only knock on Biden is that he's old. So was Ben Franklin.
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According to the article/survey #1 reason was the economy
The state of the economy is tied to Republican policy.
The lie that is trickle down is still the primary direction for their actions in Congress and in the Supreme Court.
This gives more money to the rich, who give more money to the politicians. Meanwhile the ordinary people have less and less. We are devolving into unhinhibited corruption.
- Money isn't speech
- Only people are people
- Bribes are corrupt, corruption is bad
You have to include corruption is bad because Republicans disagree
Probably because of cable news.
It and talk radio essentially form a right-wing cult that you cannot ever deprogram people from because you can't ever get them away from it. Because it is everywhere.
I'm liberal as it gets but somehow my YouTube algorithm thinks I want to see Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, and other right wing shitheads.
You can't get away from it.
Same here. Also I like to watch a little bit of Pluto for background TV while doing other stuff but that is just not viable these days with all the straight up Nazi propaganda they spew forth.
True, I forgot that part, with Bluetooth connection in my last three vehicles, I haven't listened to broadcast radio in years.
I work at a warehouse and have to drive fleet vehicles everyday. And most of the time when I get into them they are blaring shit that is completely indistinguishable from Nazi propaganda
Partly but mostly it’s the corporate takeover of society. They own the government and sell us poison to harm ourselves. The executives at the top are the wicked evil in this world.
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Power and greed and corruptible seed seem to be all that there is.
Because it has been clearly revealed to us that at least a third of our American brothers and sisters are unrepentantly ignorant morons.
Yeah I think this is it
I totally understand what you mean and on the other hand I find it hard to blame the American people, in the sense that propaganda indoctrination seems to be so strong and powerful that I suspect it's hard to be "enlightened" and clearly identify that it's not right at all.
It used to be a lot easier to give people the benefit of the doubt. When conservatives pushed different ideas for social programs they were sometimes based on actual needs that people had and could vote on. Now the hoards of people that blindly throw their support behind con men and oppressive ideas, have a focal point and it gives them great comfort to know that they can stop thinking and put their lives in the cult leaders hands. Educational programs are just one of the casualties of the last 8 years. Blind adherence to religious extremism is overtaking efforts to keep religion out of government. The dumbest of the dumb have the same voting rights as anyone else, but their numbers are increasing and civility is declining. Anything considered progressive is suspect by the right, and even awareness of human dignity has been baptized by them with the new dirty word “woke.”
“Everyone’s stupid, except for me.”
You think it’s not true?
1) I quoted the Simpsons (during a scene of irony).
2) When folks make comments like you did, they never see their own blindspots or assume they themselves might be in that very one-third they critique.
3) GK Chesterton, when responding to a newspaper editor’s question ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ wrote back simply: “I am.” I tend to agree.
I think you’re referring to Squidward in Spongebob SquarePants who said “Everyone’s an idiot except for me.”
Creeping and unchecked Christian fascism.
Because people make money by lying about the state of the world and fear mongering at the expense of innocent people's lives.
It wasn't all that long ago that social media wasn't around. The internet was fairly young and everyone was living in a shared reality that we all got from cable news and newspapers.
Now everyone is stuck in an algorithm that is tailor made to them to keep them engaged in any way possible. Reality, fiction, satire, doesn't matter. Whatever keeps you engaged the longest. So everyone's now in a their own weird little information bubble of the algorithms making. There is longer a shared reality.
And the things proven to keep you engaged the most are negative things. All day long your just bombarded with negativity.
Racial inequality
Abolishment of the fairness doctrine for media
Continued rise of Christo-fascist movement in republicans
24-hour news, social media
Electioneering and war-profiteering
Probably because the average family's purchasing power has been decimated. Interest rates have doubled, the price for goods have sky rocketed, and wages have not increased proportionately.
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They also don't have the "numbers" to prove it, they absolutely have some good numbers they can cherry pick that may or may not correlate with the economy overall. For example sure unemployment is down... Yet for a lot of families that might be because the stay at home mom had to go back to work so that they can keep up with expenses (now that family's quality of life is worse, yet it's a great number for the government). Another example the stock market has done great this year the S&P 500 is up 15% YTD, but most Americans don't reap the rewards of stock market performance until retirement age as the vast majority of their investment portfolio, if they have one at all, it's tied up into 401Ks and IRAS.
I agree! Seriously, what Democrats should be saying is that Republicans are taking every dollar that you have out of your pocket because they are the ones that are at the top making grand decisions and packing the pockets of greedy politicians & judges that are making the laws that make it easier for them to not give you proper wages, Healthcare and they will work you to death and leave you with nothing … Republicans block everything that is good
If you’re unhappy with the way, things are going…
Thank a Republican
What do you mean by the ones at the top making grand decisions? Democrats have the presidency and the senate currently?
No .. unfortunately there are a couple of Democrats that vote with Republicans every time. The president can only do so much .. clearly as you can see Republicans get in the way of everything
Supreme Court is mostly conservative and is causing chaos and undoing precedent and following party lines rather than being independent in their determination of cases
America has been pretty much bought and sold, and Republicans are the beneficiaries of all of that
I make $15k more than I did five years ago. According to an inflation calculator I have exactly the same purchasing power as I did then.
I'm not doubting your specific situation. Some things you may not be aware of though... Inflation is largely measured through the Consumer Price Index, the funny thing about the CPI is it essentially automatically lowers your quality of life as prices get higher. For example, maybe two years ago you bought: all organic foods, 2ply toilet paper, had steak once a week, bought the name brand diapers for your baby, etc... CPI assumes you're a very conscientious buyer, so it will assume your average basket of goods will lower in quality before inflation is calculated... That means maybe you cut steak, went with powdered or shelf stable milk, bought more generic items... This is an over simplification obviously, but only after that "conscientious shop" is inflation calculated, so maybe your grocery bill went up 10% but the quality of your good went down as well, so if you actually tried to maintain the same quality of life the real inflation you would feel would be much higher than what is advertised.
Again IDK your exact situation, nor do I know percentage wise how much 15k a year for you is, it could be chump change, it could be live changing. By and large though, the wages have not kept pace with the inflation, you couple that with 2x interest rates and skyrocketing home prices, and it really hits families hard.
I'd also like to add that your purchasing power being the same as it was 5 years ago is an awful thing in and of itself. American's purchasing power should, for the most part, be rising across the years because your responsibilities and expenses should rise. Things like buying a home, taking care of children, college for children, retirement, grandkids.... All of that means as life goes on you need to bring more to the table not the same amount.
I have none of those things.
That may be because of personal preference, which is your right and not inherently wrong. What is wrong, and inherently bad for the cultural fabric of a society however, is when otherwise successful people are economically discouraged from starting families and owning homes.
Look at the options on that debate stage.
I've been saying this for a year and getting shit from both sides. Fucking gong show
Damn, if only we'd listened to the Canadian Redditor.
By the looks of that it would be a start
For real! After all, you were the only one saying it.
Sounds rational, have a groovy Saturday.
Article's from April, big fella.
Is that relevant in any way to what I posted?
Is the article relevant to what you posted? That's what we're talking about, right?
Social media
Sorry Reddit, you’re a big problem
Absolutely.
Because we live with millions of folks who worship a blatant and mediocre conman.
I understand what you mean. But as I said in another comment, you ( the American people ) seem to be fighting amongst yourselves and can't find common ground on the problems of your country and how to solve them.
I can understand that, given that you're a federal state, that legislation isn't the same in every state and that each citizen of one state lives a different life from a citizen of another state. So inevitably you don't have the same problems and you can't agree.
Because Republicans successfully block everything that would improve things while maintaining power through lies perpetuated by a complicit and irresponsible corporate media.
I totally understand your comment. As a European I really get the impression that a lot of people back home are really trying to change things and are able to identify the real problems in the US; but are blocked by the pervasive lobbying in your electoral system.
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I sincerely hope that you will be able to solve this problem. Yes, voting is important! But from my point of view ( and I'll let you contradict me if you don't agree ), I have the impression that year after year you vote for the "least worst" candidate every time and that in reality there has never really been a candidate able to identify the real problems of the USA and having the will to solve them.
Politics: We have a somewhat sane center-right party led by a slightly senile kindly grandpa type. Unfortunately, the opposition are Aliexpress grade Nazis, who should all be either in prison or facing even more serious consequences. Kindly grandpa type isn’t up to the level of Realpolitik required, and wanted a return to the previous status quo before getting senile.
Economy: the plutocrats have the country by the balls, and have for decades. Inflation is just a symptom. Pretty much need a revolution to shake their grip.
Media: their business models failed over a decade ago, now they’re propaganda mills. Social media even more so.
IDK, why do you think we’re unhappy? I’d say it’s more like too exhausted for rage.
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We have tyranny of the minority in America and it is increasingly divorcing the state of our nation from the will of the people, which results in increasing frustration with everything. That is combined with the increasingly apparent outcome of decades of neoliberal policies, which is a worse life for all Americans while the wealthy get wealthier.
I'm trying to get as many different opinions as possible, and I'd like to know whether Americans are satisfied with their domestic politics, their presidential candidates, whether they feel left behind and disinterested in politics or the majority is satisfied about the US Politics.
I don't necessarily want precise facts, but rather feelings. About how the American people feel about the politics practiced in their countries, the parties, the candidates, etc. What do they think are the problems in the USA that need to be solved etc.
It's pretty simple. History is being forgotten and we're moving backwards with policies and protections.
People live their lives with nostalgia filters believing their lives were better in the 50s when companies were releasing products that genuinely poisoned them and the Supreme Court is working hard to restore their ability to do that now.
The protections to workers are vanishing at an alarming rate to appease corporate donors making working conditions worse and pay abysmal.
Our political leaders are essentially policy makers for businesses now and have no desire to truly inact the will of the people.
News outlets are corporate mouth pieces and have lost all journalistic integrity. Ratings matter more than investigative journalism. Impartiality has been replaced with talking points sent down from corporate.
All of these things combined have led to people hating others because the institutions we once turned to to guide and protect us are doing terrible things and blaming the opposing political party, races and nationalities for their deeds and the news outlets are parroting it.
The United States has become increasingly divided and it's all for increasing revenue.
I love your comment, thank you so much. I totally understand your point of view and it corroborates a lot of articles I've read: first and foremost, the 1st problem in the United States is identifying what's wrong, and a priori Americans are totally divided on the issue. So that's already a huge obstacle.
This remains my opinion and I'll let you tell me what you think, but I have the impression that American propaganda is such that people don't realize the measures they need, that the United States needs. Simply because most of these measures are socialist measures and from what I understand, Americans associate socialism with evil.
And that in any case, before even knowing what measures would benefit them, everyone would have to agree on what the problems are in the United States ( lobbying, obesity, murder, healthcare, drug addiction etc ). And that's a long way off.
As I said, it's my opinion, feel free to tell me what you think about it !
The problem with propaganda in America, is that it’s largely provided by those outside America who seek some advantage in our shared anxiety about each other. Neither the government nor the media will lift a finger concerning this state of affairs, because it feeds the bottom line in a worldview that holds that anything that increases shareholder value is justified, and that the only viable measure of value is fiduciary in nature.
The thing is, American politicians love socialism when it benefits businesses. They will go out of their way to give them what they want.
The argument can be made that by doing so, they're also benefitting workers by keeping them employed, but when most of that government sponsored money is going to shareholders and board bonuses while their employees are on welfare to survive, you have a system that is more concerned about their economic appearance than the actual prosperity of its country's people.
This leads to a lot of disparity and anger. There needs to be someone to blame for these things. So we have politicians that campaign on that anger blaming migrants for your low salary. And once they have you believing they're at fault for that, it's really easy to start blaming them or other people for everything else.
All while passing legislation limiting the very constituents that are voting for them. A failing education system does not help matters, but that again goes to legislation limiting and prohibiting crucial historical information from entering the classroom.
The decisions made today won't affect us tomorrow. But a year from now, 2 years, 10 years from now, more people will be in poverty and despair and they will have had time to build a new narrative on who caused it and why we need to vote for them to stop those people, but they'll never campaign on fixing those problems.
I'm trying to get as many different opinions as possible
Then go out and ask people face-to-face.
That can get you killed.
Especially if you ask an ultra right magat.
It’s a feature, not a bug /s
Out of date and not even the correct headline.
I wanted to know if it was still relevant, given the upcoming presidential elections. And from what I've read, it's not so much "oudtated" as it seems that many will vote out of obligation rather than conviction, as neither of the 2 candidates seem to be able to tackle the real problems facing the USA.
About the title, I just copied and pasted it !
The article is literally from 2023...it's out of date per the rules of this sub
It's interesting that you have a large part of the population worried about the environment, pro-choice, education, affordable health care, equal rights, fair pay - etc and you have another part that is essentially anti those things (for reasons of fear or the want to control others) and then you have the rest that are so darn busy trying to survive or are in a state of pure apathy or that they don't have a clue of of how government works. So many people blame the president with woes he has no control over. I've had to explain shrinkation and greedflation to so many young folk and explain that corporations are not our friends. I've had to explain what's happening to women's rights - because it doesn't effect our state they don't get you have to help others out by voting. I hear people complain about violence but I remember the 80s and 90s being worse in big cities - and when facts are presented a lot of young people think they are made up. We need to get our heads out of social media and stop mimicking what others say. We could do so much better if we shook off the apathy and hate and worked together. The world has always been in a flux but we just have a real time view of it that it seems like it's pure chaos. America is a wonderful place and we need to start seeing the similarities in each other than the differences. Giving grace instead of rage. I will step off my soap box now, everyone have a good day and take care.
I totally understand your comment! I'll repeat the same thing I said under another comment, you ( Americans ) can't seem to agree on identifying the USA's REAL problems.
That even before discussing politics, candidates, president etc you are fighting amongst yourselves. And that on top of all that ( which is already a big obstacle ) lobbying in your politics is far too powerful and that you feel powerless ( i.e. no candidate seems able to identify the USA's problems and correct them ).
I'd also say that your country presents a certain geographical/legal difficulty: you're a federal state, not a unitary one. If I've understood correctly (please feel free to correct me if I'm talking nonsense), the president doesn't have total control over the policy/legislation of all the states.
As a result, each state lives a different reality, so each has different problems => you can't find common ground on the problems that exist.
Exactly - I think so many people misunderstand how our local, county, state governments work. So many issues of complaint are usually local or state but people miss identify them as federal.
They believe in what trump says
Who do you think they should believe? I ask this because the US now seems to be stuck with 2 candidates for whom they are not convinced but will be forced to elect someone anyway, the "least worst"
There's a not ideal candidate, and one that has a plan (project 2025) to destroy the country socially and financially, and also help Russia fuck up the rest of the world.
It's not a "both sides are bad" thing.
Because the odds are no longer in their favour.
They watch too much TV.
What makes you say that? Do you mean that they invent problems that don't exist, or that they exaggerate problems by watching too much TV?
Both.
Both
can you please give me examples of the problems that you think are exaggerated by the public and those that are invented?
They’ve bought into media's, the political class’s and the corporations’ narratives of division.
Plus, one very large group are seemingly irreversibly invested in believing a rising pack of steaming lies.
Probably because of the awful CNN debate held Thursday night.
the article dates from 2023. But I grant you, I can imagine that after last night's debate the Americans are completely lost. It seems like a bad dream
Biden is why
You think it's only because of Biden and that with the presidents who preceded him it was better? I'm asking because I really want to know if Americans feel left out and have this feeling only recently or if it's a problem that goes back further.
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