Live data from Hacker News

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

news.gallup.com

61–70 of 566 posts

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

#61
post #49
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.

I think it's worse. It's not that the government doesn't care that the public hates it; it's more like the government is doing whatever it wants and half the public is going wild absolutely loving it. Well, maybe a bit less than half these days.

It's more like a third.

> 35% approve, 61% disapprove, 5% not sure

https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

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

#62
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of that is several orders of magnitude less bad than a normal Tuesday in the Trump administration. For evidence, refer to TFA.

Okay and how do you think it helps the democratic candidate's ability to win elections when they are part of the same party that supports corporations over people? In the not so recent past the democratic party controlled Congress for 60+ years on the new deal coalition alone, now look what the party has morphed into... I read the article too, in what sane world is it okay if 70% of citizens thought their governments…

Did I say it was okay?

If you think I (or virtually anyone else) am a fan of the two-party system, you probably aren't paying very close attention to... anything.

Things can be varying levels of imperfect. Things can be imperfect and acceptable, imperfect and bad, or imperfect and extremely extremely bad. It's not a sign of intelligence not to be able to discern between them.

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

#63

I’m not an American. Those not American are frankly gobsmacked that U.S. citizens voted the current President in a second time. You all literally saw what he did in his first term!

> You all literally saw what he did in his first term!

Yeah, he stopped US military from defending other countries for free.

Soft power doesn’t pay your rent/mortgage.

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

#64

Looking at their charts, Democrats and Independents clearly think corruption is up a lot since 2024. But Republicans think corruption is down from 2024. The polarization of the electorate in the U.S. is pretty incredible.

Their corruption is bad. (Ie. the other party) I wonder if the split would still be roughly the same if a Democrat was in power at the time of the survey. Edited to add: Answer seems to be in the article, as pointed out here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49571258 First diagram in the article shows uptick, but since 2010 it's been in the 70-80% range. So it seems pretty party-agnostic.

Biden was in power for the survey in 2024.

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

#65

Looking at their charts, Democrats and Independents clearly think corruption is up a lot since 2024. But Republicans think corruption is down from 2024. The polarization of the electorate in the U.S. is pretty incredible.

Their corruption is bad. (Ie. the other party) I wonder if the split would still be roughly the same if a Democrat was in power at the time of the survey. Edited to add: Answer seems to be in the article, as pointed out here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49571258 First diagram in the article shows uptick, but since 2010 it's been in the 70-80% range. So it seems pretty party-agnostic.

Per the second chart:

Since 2024, Democrats went from being the most trusting (57%) to the most skeptical (91%), bringing all groups to within 10 points of each other on the question.

This is not a "both sides" situation: Republicans dropped from 87% to 83% after their guy was elected, whereas Democrats nearly 1.5x'd their number of skeptics. There is no universal implication here IMO, this is just Democrats joining the 80-percenters, i.e. everyone

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

#66
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.

This is putting mildly. The most damning bit might just be that Republican voters saw all the corruption of Trump I and decided they wanted more.

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

#67
post #54
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's worse. It's not that the government doesn't care that the public hates it; it's more like the government is doing whatever it wants and half the public is going wild absolutely loving it. Well, maybe a bit less than half these days.

The half that supports this nonsense genuinely believes this level of corruption has always existed. They're just happy it's their team this time. I simply do not understand American politics.

Nobody does. The amount of teenage angst posted in this forum about the current admin is amusingly pathetic. None of it matters. Congress constantly gets a free pass while we focus on a figurehead largely enabled by a passive and embarrassing congressional electorate. “We found the scapegoat, blame that guy!”

It’s really embarrassing

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

#68
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Trump is bad, but please let's not excuse corporate neoliberal dems that are totally fine with insider trading, legalized bribes, and are quite proud that their consultant campaign workers get lucrative gigs at corporations/boards due to insider access. I mean we have people like Gillibrand that are openly in bed with the crypto industry while somehow decrying what Trump is doing. Feels like they're upset that Trump…

No one is excusing them. But it's worth pointing out that in every aspect of government ethics reform, from campaign financing to insider trading by government officials, the legislation promoted by Democrats is stronger than that promoted by Republicans, who often not only don't promote reform but actively oppose it. For example, the recent lukewarm ban on insider trading was opposed by Democrats on the grounds that it was too weak, excluded the President and VP, and included unrelated voter regulation measures. And the Democrats have been trying to pass legislation to correct Citizens United for years. So while it's a bipartisan issue, one party is much more pro-reform than the other.

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

#69
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"indepdendent" does not mean "i see all parties as absolutely the same". It means "I am not firmly affiliated". You still have the ability to make choices on who is a better likely outcome

This is correct. That is why I changed from independent to an actual political party. There is no point, it is highly improbable that I would ever vote for the party that is against my values. The two main US political parties are diametrically opposed.

No, they each manufacture consent for capital interests in a race to the bottom for everybody else, using time-tested good cop / bad cop, revolving door corruption, etc.

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

#70
I don’t know why this should be surprising since it’s all out in the open now.

They made Carter give up his family peanut farm to be President.

Trump and his family are selling stock every week, running crypto currency rug pulls, accepting gifts ostensibly for the country that they say will be donated to Trump at the end of his term(the Qatar plane).

It’s all out in the open under Trump term 2.

At this point if you think there isn’t corruption I assume you also think RFK has the right idea about health care and vaccinations.

Post reply on HN