WASHINGTON (AP) – Only a fraction of Americans believe democracy is thriving in the United States, even when broad majorities agree that representative government is one of the country’s core principles, according to a new Associated poll Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Only 16% of Americans say democracy works well or extremely well, a pessimism that spans the political spectrum. Nearly half of Americans, 45%, believe democracy is not working properly, while another 38% say it only works a little well.
The basic elements of democratic government, including free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power, were put to the test by unfounded allegations of electoral fraud. advanced by former President Donald Trump. These allegations of fraud were the root cause of the deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol last month, which damaged the country’s reputation as a model of democracy.
Trump will face a second trial of unprecedented dismissal in the Senate this week for his role in provoking the violence. About half of Americans to say the Senate should condemn the former Republican president.
“With each step, it has gotten worse,” said Curtis Musser, a 55-year-old Republican pro-independence activist in Clermont, Florida, who did not vote for Trump. “It could be seen that it was developing even before the elections. And everything was spiraling down from there. “
The poll’s findings are generally consistent with the way Americans classified democracy before elections. But there are indications of Trump’s attacks on the democratic process, including his repeated and discredited argument that the election was “stolen” because of voter irregularities., resonated with Republicans.
In October, about two-thirds of those who identify with the Republican Party, 68 percent, said democracy worked at least a little well. This figure fell to 36% in January. Democratic views went in the opposite direction, with 70% reporting that democracy worked at least a little well compared to 37% in the fall.
Overall, about two-thirds of Americans say Joe Biden was legitimately elected president, but only one-third of Republicans thought so.
This debate is now unfolding in Congress, with a clear division between Republican leaders such as Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. Liz Cheney and others who have rejected Trump’s claims and validated Biden’s victory. However, more than 140 Republicans in the House refused to accept Biden’s victory, a sign of the far-right’s adherence to the party.
Republican Party officials from several battlefields say Biden led, including Arizona and Georgia, have said the election was fair. Trump’s claims were flatly rejected in the courts, including judges appointed by Trump and his former attorney general, William Barr.
Fred Carrigan, a 58-year-old industrial heating mechanic in Portland, Indiana, said he did not believe Trump’s argument that the election was stolen. But he also believes the push to accuse and condemn Trump is an affront to democracy. A conviction would give senators the option to ban Trump from seeking re-election.
“Trump did himself no favors by telling them to leave. But he did not tell them to vandalize the Capitol, “said Carrigan. “I do not think it is open to challenge. To accuse him is petty. They are a group of children who try to prove who is right, when it doesn’t matter in the big picture ”.
“All of this shows that it will just get worse,” he said.
Biden, a Democrat, is committed to using the power of the presidency to promote democratic ideals.
In one of the first tests of this commitment, he was quick to condemn the military leaders who staged a coup last week in Myanmar, threatening sanctions and exploiting a “direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the Biden administration is “deeply concerned” about the imprisonment in Russia of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
An overwhelming majority of Americans, 70%, say they believe Biden respects democratic institutions at least a good deal. But there is a strong political divide, with about 96% of Democrats saying Biden respects those institutions, compared to about 42% of Republicans.
They are still far superior to those obtained by Trump: 62% say the former president has little or no respect for democratic traditions or institutions. This view is 93% of Democrats and especially 27% of Republicans.
Linda Reynolds, a 64-year-old retired paper sales representative in Torrance, California, was a lifelong Republican until Trump won the party’s presidential nomination in 2016. With Biden in the White House, she feels better if the The United States will accept democracy again. .
“Obviously we have a lot of problems,” he said. “But in general, it seems that reason has prevailed, with luck in the eyes of the world.”
While Americans do not receive any current state of democracy, they are unified because this form of government remains the desired approach. Eighty percent say a democratically elected government is very or very important to the nation’s identity.
Support persisted or was even higher for other central principles of the nation’s democratic government. Eighty-eight percent say a fair judicial system and the rule of law are very or extremely important, and 85% consider similar sentiments about individual liberties and liberties as defined in the Constitution.
These democratic principles are considered important by large majorities of Republicans and Democrats.
Despite negative views of how the U.S. is governed today, the poll finds intense optimism about the country’s future. Nearly half, 49%, say things are going in the right direction, compared to 37% in December and 25% in October. Optimism peaked at 20% last summer. Much of the rise in optimism came among Democrats, who trust Biden and his ability to govern and manage crises. facing the country.
“We’re still a great country and we do a lot of good things,” Reynolds said.
___
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Hannah Fingerhut and Emily Swanson, writers of the Associated Press in Washington, contributed to this report.
___
The AP-NORC survey of 1,055 adults was conducted from January 28 to February. 1 using a sample extracted from the AmeriSpeak panel based on NORC probabilities, designed to be representative of the American population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is approximately 3.8 percentage points.
___
On line:
AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.