Almost four out of every 10 Americans have “hardly any” trust in the U.S. political system, according to new national survey
“Americans express middling levels of confidence in political institutions and procedures,” an Associated Press poll of 1,060 people nationwide shows. “Only 1 in 10 have a great deal of confidence in the political system of the United States while about half have some confidence and nearly 4 in 10 have hardly any confidence.”
The survey figures come at the tail end of a primary season that has seen GOP nominee Donald Trump and Democratic insurgent Bernie Sanders argue that the nominating system was “rigged.” About 40 percent of survey respondents agree with those complaints, the poll also shows. But the distrust extends beyond the campaign process, with voters offering poor reviews of most political institutions.
Sanders is poised to lose the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, but 49 percent of Americans think his campaign has been “very or somewhat good” for their party. Just 33 percent of Americans say that about Trump’s campaign, whereas 50 percent of survey respondents say his campaign has been bad for Republicans.
And a broad swath of the electorate dislikes the two-party system, which is consistent with the distrust of the political system and their views of the winners and losers of the primaries. “Nearly 4 in 10 regard the two-party system as seriously broken,” AP found. “About half say this system for electing a president has major problems, but could still work with some improvement. Just 13 percent of the public says the two-party system works fairly well.”
