As we look around our nation today, we see a bit of chaos. This is as tumultuous a time as we’ve had as Americans, outside of those several years in the early 1860’s, and we have our political leaders and the mainstream media to blame.
The two party system, for starters, is designed to create friction that cannot be escaped. By eliminating meaningful avenues of escape from the Democrats and Republicans, every issue we face now needs to be divvied up into their corner and their corners alone.
The infotainment industry is exploiting this in order to sell commercials, by enraging Americans in order to keep them tuned in between segments.
And so, as one would expect, our fellow countrymen are getting a little bit agitated.
Another sign of growing discontent in America? A new poll from the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics finds a majority of Americans think the government is corrupt and stacked against them.
To probably no one’s surprise, 73 percent of poll respondents who identify as “strong Republican” respondents agreed with the statement that the government is “corrupt and rigged against everyday people like me.” But Republicans are far from alone in this sentiment. Fifty-one percent of “very liberal” voters agreed with the same statement.
Overall, 56 percent of survey respondents said that the government is corrupt. This included 66 percent of all Republican respondents, 63 percent of independents, and 46 percent of Democrats.
And then…
The survey of 1,000 registered voters found that a significant number of people expect that extreme measures may be necessary to protect against government overreach. 28 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government.” Thirty-six percent of Republicans, 35 percent of independents, and 20 percent of Democrats agreed.
These sort of lurches toward disunity will undoubtedly continue until such a time as Americans can ween themselves off of the media machine.
