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00:01:02This is "Clear Politics" on air. Sociologists from Gallup record that Americans are extremely
00:01:06dissatisfied with the government, the level of trust in key institutions has been rapidly
00:01:09falling in recent years, based on the latest polls, it has dropped
00:01:13to the very
00:01:14bottom.
00:01:19America celebrated its 250th anniversary, but millions
00:01:21of Americans see no reason for joy, writes Zakhil. Congress is hated,
00:01:25the Supreme Court is not trusted, presidents are not favored, Americans
00:01:29no longer pride themselves on their country, there are totally low
00:01:32ratings everywhere, why is society losing faith in America and where is the roof
00:01:36of the brave home leaking, from us only facts, conclusions
00:01:40are yours to make.
00:02:32This summer, several eloquent polls were published in the US, all of them
00:02:36showing a record level of pessimism among
00:02:39the population. The country, which for decades was called
00:02:42an example of stable democracy, today does not trust
00:02:45itself, and this, of course, is not a bolt from the blue,
00:02:49but a very specific
00:02:49diagnosis.
00:03:02In the US itself, the situation is called, in Hollywood fashion, a crisis
00:03:05of democracy. Firstly, Americans no longer believe in what seemed to be sacred,
00:03:09the American dream, and do not feel pride in their
00:03:12nation. At the end of June, the Gallup Institute published
00:03:16the results of a poll which showed that only 33% of US
00:03:19residents feel extreme pride in their belonging to
00:03:23the American nation. According to sociologists, this is the lowest
00:03:26indicator in 25 years of such observations. Before
00:03:30this, the Reuters agency conducted similar research and reported
00:03:34on its findings that 70% of US residents
00:03:36no longer consider their country the greatest on Earth.
00:03:3964% of respondents are convinced that American democracy
00:03:43is in danger, 38% do not believe
00:03:47that the states will last another 250 years as a unified
00:03:50state. In September of last year, The Wall Street Journal
00:03:54shocked: 70% of the state's population consider the American
00:03:57dream an irrelevant narrative. And do not believe that
00:04:00hard work can lead to its fulfillment. It seems that no one has
00:04:04ever treated the main American pillar this way. Moreover,
00:04:08young people, instead of dreaming, are increasingly dreaming of emigration.
00:04:11Youth pessimism is associated with the fact that gerontocracy has taken root
00:04:15in the US government, which does not want to change anything and wishes to eternally
00:04:19maintain the current status quo. The current US
00:04:22in this sense has a certain similarity to the late USSR before its
00:04:26collapse. In the Union, at its decline, there was an epidemic of alcoholism in the state.
00:04:30Now there is an epidemic of drug addiction, from which more than 100,000
00:04:33Americans die annually, as in the late USSR, elites
00:04:37are fixated on foreign policy at the expense of internal problems.
00:04:40The US, of course, does not fully copy the Soviet Union, but all these
00:04:44factors in the long term will negatively
00:04:47affect the development of this country. Secondly,
00:04:50Americans are seriously disappointed with the entire structure of power. Alarming figures
00:04:54from transatlantic sentiments were heard last year. Then the level of trust
00:04:57of Americans in the government became the worst in 50
00:05:00years, especially the situation has changed dramatically over
00:05:04the last 20 years, a corresponding study
00:05:07was conducted by the Gallup company between September 2nd and 16th,
00:05:11analysts compared the level of trust of Americans in the government in
00:05:141970 and 2020. Only
00:05:1838% of survey participants trust the federal
00:05:21government on domestic policy issues. 32%
00:05:25of respondents trust legislators, Americans also
00:05:28began to trust politicians less, since the 1970s
00:05:31the indicator decreased by 23%. More
00:05:34skepticism among the population appeared towards news
00:05:37media. Over half a century, the average level of trust fell by
00:05:4036%. Such surveys, which measure
00:05:44Americans' attitudes towards key institutions, have been conducted by the Gallup Institute
00:05:47since 2006.
00:05:51study, the US shared first place with Great Britain in
00:05:55the G7 ranking. In 2023,
00:05:58Americans' attitudes changed so much that their country
00:06:02took the last place, writes The
00:06:05Economist.
00:06:10Fresh data this year shows that it has not
00:06:13become easier for Americans to believe and trust the state; they trust
00:06:16it even less. In the first alternative rating, Congress is trusted by only
00:06:209%, and it seems both camps hate it, both
00:06:23Democrats and Republicans. Historically,
00:06:26the country's bureaucracy and legal system served as soft
00:06:30walls, restraining collective delusions. However, those times
00:06:34are long gone. Today, Congress's approval rating has fallen below
00:06:38the plinth, and in terms of respect, legislators have become equal to
00:06:41lice and
00:06:42so wrapped in legal wording used cars. Laws are no longer
00:06:45developed to help citizens, they are written by donors for donors,
00:06:52tightly that they work like malicious software code,
00:06:55created specifically to hide loopholes from the public
00:06:58for corporate enrichment. Congress, again,
00:07:02especially in recent decades, in recent years, in addition
00:07:06to everything else, has turned not just into
00:07:09this field of clarification.
00:07:42activities, the institution of the presidency is also not spoiled by the love
00:07:46of society, the trust indicator is only 27%, which is even lower than
00:07:49Trump's ratings, which fluctuate within 30-40%.
00:07:52It is noteworthy that the most modest figures are for
00:07:56institutions that pass laws and ensure
00:07:59their execution. All American media are now criticizing
00:08:02President Donald Trump as almost the main betrayer of national
00:08:06interests. They write that the war with Iran started incorrectly, not
00:08:10as it should have. And how can one be proud of their country when
00:08:13their own people speak of it exclusively in negative
00:08:16tones. In fact, American citizens do not have many reasons for
00:08:19pride now, or they are critically few.
00:08:23Such a fall of the house of democracy has several
00:08:26reasons: political paralysis. Americans were promised
00:08:30for years to solve problems of healthcare, migration,
00:08:33national debt, and crime, but Washington repeatedly
00:08:36proved unable to make sustainable decisions.
00:08:40Second, the division of society into two incompatible worldviews.
00:08:43For one America, the main threat is authoritarianism
00:08:47and restriction of rights, for the other, open borders,
00:08:51crime, and rising prices. The political
00:08:54leadership also does not inspire much hope. Over the years, the White House increasingly
00:08:57resembles not the center of the free world, but rather
00:09:01a nursing home whose inhabitants have started a high-stakes
00:09:04game. We saw how President Joe Biden throughout his
00:09:08presidency wandered with the lost look of a man who forgot
00:09:12why he went to the kitchen. He exuded about as much power as
00:09:16a melting ice cream cone. Then came
00:09:19the second season of President Trump, which many did not even ask for.
00:09:22He turned the Oval Office into a family business and began
00:09:26to govern the country with tweets written in caps. Trump
00:09:29promised to keep America out of new wars, but he himself approved
00:09:32military action against Iran, dragging the country into another
00:09:36costly Middle East conflict. Viewers are beginning to understand that
00:09:39the pilots are fighting more for the steering wheel than
00:10:12that they cover events in favor of certain political parties and
00:10:16leaders. Publications such as CNN, The New York Times, and the Washington
00:10:20Post are considered platforms for the Democratic Party. Finding
00:10:23positive information in them.
00:10:30so-called conservative views. In conditions of information warfare,
00:10:33sides use the dirtiest methods against each other. Seeing all
00:10:37this bacchanalia, the average American virtually stopped trusting
00:10:40traditional mainstream media. Only 14%
00:10:44trust television. Media have turned into partisan
00:10:47camps. Democratic voters watch some channels, Republicans
00:10:51others. And the same event receives two opposite
00:10:56views. And while Fox News tells how Trump heroically defeats Iran,
00:10:59hosts of popular evening shows in the US make him, excuse me,
00:11:03an idiot.
00:11:07Only a miracle can save Trump, no one trusts him, his numbers
00:11:10are going to hell. Let's help him, he wants to save
00:11:14Spirit Airlines by spending half a billion
00:11:17dollars on the company, but it, like Trump, can no longer be saved. Let's spend
00:11:21money just to make him disappear. I flew.
00:11:25"I lived during Trump's term, neither can be saved."
00:11:29One-sided coverage, bias, publication of fakes and unverified
00:11:32data, the audience is tired of lies and
00:11:35manipulations. Now the press in America is about
00:11:38supporting lies, it's all about money, you can't fix
00:11:42CNN, you can't fix Fox News or NBC, CBS, and so
00:11:46on. CNN today has completely lost the trust of the American people,
00:11:50we once had the coolest journalists, my friend, Seymour
00:11:53Hersh, famous throughout the world as an investigative
00:11:57journalist, today all mainstream media reject him, they don't want the truth, that is,
00:12:01corporate interests have seized the mass media.
00:12:05Now, I think, a unique dynamic has formed: over the past
00:12:08five years, they have told so many lies that are easy
00:12:11to expose, that they simply undermined the trust of the
00:12:14American people in themselves, and I am glad about that, because it allows us
00:12:18to reason more rationally and independently and to better understand
00:12:22the world. I think that, in general, this is what undermines.
00:12:34it's impossible, it brings no benefit to the media themselves, so I don't understand
00:12:37why they continue to act this way when people already don't
00:12:41trust them. Perhaps they should at least sometimes stick to the truth, but they
00:12:45seem completely uninterested in that, perhaps
00:12:48because propaganda has always worked,
00:12:52and helped guide people in the right direction.
00:12:59The split in America runs not only through party headquarters and television
00:13:02channels, it runs through families, cities, and entire states, the cause
00:13:06of which is illegal
00:13:07migrants.
00:13:12For Republicans, the southern border has become a symbol of the state losing
00:13:16control; for Democrats, tough deportation policy is a threat to human
00:13:20rights. Another split in the nation is
00:13:22abortions.
00:13:25the US system has created
00:13:27an absolutely unstable, explosive
00:13:31construct, where indeed the split goes not only by
00:13:34states, but it goes not only by
00:13:37political parties, it goes by families, and
00:13:40by brothers, by citizens of the same
00:13:44city, and if this is not stopped,
00:13:47and if politicians do not realize that the exploitation of such
00:13:51dangerous social instruments
00:13:53will lead to a global catastrophe, and it will be
00:13:57a truly bloody massacre, as they love to show in Hollywood
00:14:00films, then I have the worst
00:14:04news for them, it will all end exactly
00:14:07as they film about themselves on
00:14:11big screens. And the economy, prices are rising, fuel is becoming more expensive due to the war with Iran,
00:14:15and this is against the backdrop of rumors of pure chaos in the White
00:14:18House. The war not only consumes Trump's presidency, but
00:14:22also affects the president himself. During a recent
00:14:25meeting in the Oval Office, he lashed out at Iranian
00:14:29leaders, calling them scumbags and lunatics in an uncensored
00:14:32tirade. Concerns are growing about his physical health and
00:14:36mental stability. Donald's condition is deteriorating
00:14:39before our eyes," a close confidant who regularly sees him
00:14:43told me this week in Washington. "His physical and
00:14:46mental health is declining. Those around him
00:14:49don't know what to do about it. The situation can only get worse. He's 80
00:14:53years old, and it shows. But it's not just about age or declining
00:14:56cognitive abilities that can affect those entering their
00:15:00ninth decade. Trump lashes out at everyone
00:15:03and everything, expressing disappointment at the lack of any worthy
00:15:07options currently facing him. Agree, not
00:15:11the best characteristic for a man with his finger on the nuclear button.
00:15:14It seems that Trump, who tried to bend the changing world, ultimately
00:15:18bent himself. 70% of Americans consider
00:15:22the campaign against Iran mistaken, so.
00:16:07it is a consequence not only of his cabinet, it is to the same extent
00:16:11a consequence of this polarization,
00:16:14yes, in American society.
00:16:17Now seeing that this
00:16:20invasion, this aggression, it, well, did not become such
00:16:24a blitzkrieg, that it does not
00:16:27hit Iran as hard as initially desired,
00:16:31many, of course, are changing their
00:16:32minds.
00:16:37But the worst will happen if, as a result of the congressional elections, the losing side
00:16:41refuses to accept the results. Trump has hinted at this softly
00:16:44repeatedly, and even tried to cancel the elections, but it did
00:16:48not work. In the Trump administration, the sense
00:16:51of risk of an unfavorable outcome of the vote is increasing, which prompts
00:16:55preparations for worse scenarios, including intensified investigations
00:16:59and hearing summonses in the event of a transfer of control over Congress to
00:17:03Democrats, the publication states. White House lawyers
00:17:06conduct closed sessions for political appointees,
00:17:09explaining the procedure for congressional oversight and
00:17:12recommendations for interaction with legislators. During meetings,
00:17:15which, according to insiders, last about 30 minutes, employees are
00:17:19explained how to properly respond to congressional inquiries and what
00:17:23precautions to observe when conducting
00:17:25correspondence. So paranoia is not just about communism, and
00:17:29such tectonic shifts at the top have affected ordinary people,
00:17:32they stopped believing the authorities, stopped being proud of the country, stopped watching
00:17:36television, and these figures for the US are much more painful than the national debt
00:17:40of 40 trillion dollars, which, by the way, grows by about
00:17:4325 billion dollars per day. In such a state,
00:17:46the US celebrated its 250th anniversary.
00:17:50The crisis of institutions will manifest itself in full glory during the upcoming
00:17:53elections. The losing party will obviously not recognize their
00:17:57legitimacy. Republicans will blame Democrats for postal
00:18:00fraud and collusion with foreign lobbyists who do not
00:18:04like Trump's policies. So in 2027.
00:18:16This is the most alarming trend in American reality: Democrats support some, Republicans others,
00:18:19individual states live their own lives and sometimes do not listen to the White House,
00:18:23the nation is divided, internal contradictions only increase,
00:18:27political scientists are increasingly asking the question: will the state
00:18:30collapse? Trump is taking a number of radical
00:18:34measures on issues that concern citizens, migration, the economy,
00:18:37electoral law, and a number of states are
00:18:40opposing this. The legal systems of individual states are in
00:18:44a tough clinch with Trump's federal initiatives. And at a certain
00:18:48moment, Trump introduces federal law enforcement agencies like the
00:18:51National Guard into these states. This is indeed one of the prerequisites for the collapse
00:18:55of the state, but without some radical changes, this process
00:18:58will continue for another 20-30 years. The level of mutual
00:19:02hatred is off the charts. 77% of survey
00:19:05participants are confident that in the next 5 years, political violence in
00:19:09the country will become the norm. American hegemony has given up the ghost amidst
00:19:13internal strife that can no longer
00:19:16be ignored. The political system of the states is compared to
00:19:19a jammed mechanism, where each part tries to crush
00:19:22the neighboring one, forgetting during the eternal political rally
00:19:26about ordinary people. The tragedy is that
00:19:29the overwhelming majority of Americans are still surprisingly decent
00:19:33people who just want to pay their bills, have a beer,
00:19:36and be left alone, but they are stuck in a frozen virtual
00:19:40reality created to unleash their worst
00:19:43impulses. America suffers not so much from a lack of worthy
00:19:47citizens as from a structural failure of institutions designed
00:19:51to serve them. Millions of people see no reason to celebrate
00:19:54the 250th anniversary. By scolding them for a lack
00:19:57of patriotism, we miss the point. In reality, it is
00:20:01just the mortal fatigue of an impoverished, broken
00:20:04population that is tired of hearing that they are healthy
00:20:08when they see with their own eyes on the screen how a heartbeat
00:20:12turns into a straight line, foreshadowing imminent
00:20:15death. A very specific summary of public sentiment, as
00:20:18they say, from within. It is quite symptomatic that the upcoming
00:20:22electoral race for seats in Congress is becoming the most expensive in history.
00:20:25For advertising alone, both parties plan to spend
00:20:2912 billion dollars. Apparently, the trust
00:20:32of the population will have to
00:20:33be bought.
00:20:38The US still possesses the strongest army, the most powerful economy, and
00:20:42incredible technical potential, but all this will melt like tears in
00:20:45the rain if a big explosion occurs inside, which is possible not in
00:20:49theory, but already this coming November in the elections. Such low ratings
00:20:53of trust in the government are not even statistics, but a warning:
00:20:56political winter for the states may be