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Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

news.gallup.com

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Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#11

Post by iAMkenough »

autoexec wrote: post #8

Corruption in the US isn't new, but it's never been done as openly as it has been recently. I don't think it's a good thing. It shows that the government isn't concerned about what the public thinks, which suggests that they believe they no longer have to be. That's not a healthy sign for what's supposed to be a democracy.

Sucks seeing the federal government weaponize the U.S. Postal Service to prevent legitimate ballots from being counted.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#13

Post by estearum »

autoexec wrote: post #8

Corruption in the US isn't new, but it's never been done as openly as it has been recently. I don't think it's a good thing. It shows that the government isn't concerned about what the public thinks, which suggests that they believe they no longer have to be. That's not a healthy sign for what's supposed to be a democracy.

Well it’s almost certainly not just more open. But also more common and more intense. There is 100% absolutely no possible comparison to Trump’s personal acts of corruption in any prior White House ever.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#14

Post by jeffbee »

autoexec wrote: post #8

Corruption in the US isn't new, but it's never been done as openly as it has been recently. I don't think it's a good thing. It shows that the government isn't concerned about what the public thinks, which suggests that they believe they no longer have to be. That's not a healthy sign for what's supposed to be a democracy.

Implying that it's always been this way is part of the reason we are now here. For my entire life, bad faith commentators insinuated that the federal government was rife with corruption. When under Democratic control, of course. The time that Al Gore made one long-distance telephone call from his official desk, using his own personal calling card, birthed over 200 New York Times articles, 30 of them on the front page. We just had to get to the bottom of all that corruption!

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#15

Post by throw0101a »

Even before this new record high, in the previous ~15 years the average seemed to be around 75% (±), which seems… high? I would perhaps understand the US public thinking that (some levels of) government being "incompetent", but not corrupt.

By some measure the US does seem to have 'decent' scores for perception of corruption:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

* https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025

Meta: in some ways it seems that the public's perception of government is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the US there is a large vein of "government is bad/incompetent/corrupt" and that's apparently what the US often gets. While in (e.g.) Scandinavian countries there appears to be a higher level of trust in government, and the people there tend to elect more competent politicians (?).

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#17

Post by jeffbee »

swed420 wrote: post #5

Related: New High of 45% in U.S. Identify as Political Independents (January 12, 2026) https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-politi...

An "independent" in America is a person who greatly desires everything Trump is doing but realizes that makes them a bad person and therefore refuses to admit it.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#18

Post by darth_avocado »

swed420 wrote: post #5

Related: New High of 45% in U.S. Identify as Political Independents (January 12, 2026) https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-politi...

Identifying as independents means nothing. 67% of independents in 2018 viewed one party more favorable and were unfavorable to other. In other words, the independents have a partisan lean towards one party and are more likely to vote that way.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/03/14/political-in...

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#20

Post by newAccount2025 »

Webstir wrote: post #4

But, not the politicians I voted for. It's always the other guys.

Nah. At the end of the day it’s candidate A vs. B. Once they’re all corrupt you still have to decide between them and pick the lesser evil as you see it. They’re creatures of ambition and incentives, and the corruption is a feature of the system. It sucks but what can you do but vote for the corrupt dems or the corrupt republicans?
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