At a time when many Americans say they’re struggling to distinguish between fact and fiction, the country is broadly skeptical that facts underlie some of the basic mechanisms of democracy in the United States — from political campaigns to voting choices to the policy decisions made by elected officials. CONT. […] Read more »
‘No One Believes Anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News
… The Democrats in Congress took their case against President Trump to the public last week. But after hours of testimony, thousands of news reports and days of streaming headlines, one thing was clear: A lot of Americans weren’t listening. … In this volatile political moment, information, it would seem, […] Read more »
Americans Have Positive Views About Religion’s Role in Society, but Want It Out of Politics
A large majority of Americans feel that religion is losing influence in public life, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey. While some say this is a good thing, many more view it as a negative development, reflecting the broad tendency of Americans to see religion as a positive […] Read more »
State of the Facts Poll
Despite fundamental disagreements about which sources of information to trust, Americans overwhelmingly agree on what facts should be: accurate, transparent and based in data, according to a new national poll by USAFacts and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The 2019 State of the Facts Poll examines Americans’ […] Read more »
How the decline of public trust shaped Trump’s, Nixon’s and Clinton’s endgames
For more than a century, through world wars and technological revolutions, no American president faced removal from office for betraying the nation’s trust. On Wednesday, for the third time in many Americans’ lifetimes, a president will be pushed onto the very public path that could lead from commander in chief […] Read more »
Close Election in Kentucky Was Ripe for Twitter, and an Omen for 2020
A few hours after polls closed in Kentucky last Tuesday, a Twitter user writing under the handle @Overlordkraken1 posted a message to his 19 followers saying he had “just shredded a box of Republican mail-in ballots.” … Within hours of @Overlordkraken1’s tweet, as it became apparent that Mr. Bevin was […] Read more »