Donald Trump is a disruptor. Few would disagree that his actions and style of political combat set him apart from past presidents. There is less consensus about the implications of Trump’s distinctive governing style for the health of American democracy, however. To understand how Americans rate their democracy in the […] Read more »
Preventing the suicide of American democracy
John Adams was not particularly optimistic about democracy. In an 1814 letter, he wrote: “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” A new study of American public attitudes suggests our democracy indeed may be heading […] Read more »
Patriotic Americans Are Pro-Immigration
Given the prominence and volume of those voices expressing fear and dislike of immigrants—especially of the undocumented variety—it’s easy to forget that theirs is a minority opinion. A Gallup poll released earlier this year found 75 percent of Americans think immigration is “generally a good thing” for the country. A […] Read more »
How Americans see their country and their democracy
On the Fourth of July, Americans celebrate the birth of the nation and the values that have sustained the country and its democracy in the nearly 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Americans’ views vary when it comes to how they see the United States’ standing […] Read more »
Proud? Maybe Just Not Right Now
“America’s the best country in the world,” says Noam Chomsky. His writings are unfailingly critical of US government policy, so interviewers tend to ask him why he doesn’t go live somewhere else. That’s his answer. More and more Americans are coming to share that ambivalence. A Gallup poll released two […] Read more »
It’s Independence Day, but Americans aren’t feeling so proud
The Washington Post polling team is celebrating Independence Day the best way we know how: by combing through the latest surveys of what Americans say they think about their country and patriotism. We came away with an image that is largely negative or deteriorating. Americans are less proud of their […] Read more »