Gallup Explains Trump: "A Staggering 75% Of Americans Believe In Widespread Government Corruption"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Back in July, when the HuffPo was covering Donald Trump's campaign in its "Entertainment Section" (they are not laughing now), and when not a single political pundit thought Trump had any chance of winning the GOP primary (now most of them do), we said that "Donald Trump's Soaring Popularity "Is The Country's Collective Middle Finger To Washington."

Here is what we said:

Donald Trump’s ascendance as the early GOP front-runner is symbolic of a greater global trend: growing pushback against institutional political and economic power.

 

To many centrist politicians and mainstream political observers, Donald Trump is a boastful, insensitive egomaniac spouting populist rhetoric. Whether such a characterization is true is not worthy of debate, which may explain why the rantings of enraged career political pundits have no impact on Mr. Trump’s popularity among Republican voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and across America. It seems no amount of ink or air time spent tarring and feathering Trump’s reputation sticks; in fact it seems to help Teflon Don in the polls, where he leads a crowded field of career politicians.

 

Donald Trump is a threat not only to the nattering nabobs in the press corps and the Republican Party. His day in the sun may be symbolic of a broader dynamic: the declining power held by historically powerful institutions. Ask yourself if Trump’s campaign is making a mockery of the political process or exposing the mockery that the political process has become. A not-insignificant percentage of Americans away from the coasts, are looking past his utter lack of decorum and political savvy to hitch their wagons to his outrage.

Six months later, virtually everyone recognizes and admits that this is the case: a vote for Trump is not "a vote for Trump", it is a vote against the broken, corrupt, crony-capitalist model.

Which explains why increasingly more are terrified he just may win.

But what explains America's revulsion with the existing system? The answer comes from the latest Gallup article: "Explaining Trump: Widespread Government Corruption" in which it finds that once the silent majority of the population can identify the object of their distrust and anger - in this case Congress and the political status quo - and once they can subsequently identify an object that represents its opposite, the latter object's distance to the Oval Office becomes considerably shorter.

From Gallup:

Explaining Trump: Widespread Government Corruption

It's been fashionable to make jokes about Congress' historically low approval ratings, unbelievable incompetence in the government and now, unfortunately, the perception of widespread government corruption. Pundits and talk-radio hosts have a field day with this. So do late-night comics.

It's not funny anymore.

A staggering 75% of the American public believe corruption is "widespread" in the U.S. government. Not incompetence, but corruption. This alarming figure has held steady since 2010, up from 66% in 2009.

This sense of corruption probably contributes to much of the extreme anxiety and unrest we see today - including protests, lower voter turnout and increased interest in guns.

Guns -- a symbol of freedom from government tyranny to many people -- are now a key voting issue. A quarter of U.S. voters say the presidential candidate they vote for must share their view on guns.

Protests are growing in cities and campuses all around the country. Students and citizens generally have lost faith in their national institutions -- the biggest and most powerful of which is, of course, the federal government.

The last presidential election had an estimated 5 million fewer voters than turned out in 2008, and the 2014 midterm elections saw the lowest turnout in 72 years (36.3%). At alarming levels, citizens -- when invited to participate directly in their own democracy -- are taking a pass and staying home. Or taking their frustrations to the streets.

The perception that there's widespread corruption in the national government could be a symptom of citizen disengagement and anger. Or it could be a cause -- we don't know. But it's very possible this is a big, dark cloud that hangs over this country's progress. And it might be fueling the rise of an unlikely, non-traditional leading Republican candidate for the presidency, Donald Trump.

To make matters worse, that dark cloud appears to be hanging over the growth of small business, which is where virtually all new GDP growth and good jobs originate. Simply put, startups and shootups (small businesses that grow larger) have been in a death spiral. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the total number of business startups and business closures per year crossed for the first time in 2008.

And the economy isn't growing nearly fast enough -- it's been running at an average rate of 2% since the 2008 financial collapse and the Great Recession. Just to compare, following the recession of 1981-1982, GDP grew for six years at 4.5% -- one of our greatest economic eras in history.

Jobs haven't come back. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of the total adult population that has a full-time job has been hovering around 48% since 2010 -- the lowest full-time employment level since 1983. This is why the middle class has been dangerously shrinking.

You don't have to connect too many dots to conclude that if a government has an alarmingly high appearance of widespread corruption -- and that same government creates regulations that businesses cite as a leading barrier to growth -- then entrepreneurs might be reluctant to stick their necks out to start a business. Or to boom the businesses they already have.

Why would they start or boom a business if they think a corrupt government is creating rules and regulations that don't serve their interests -- but rather rules that serve the interests of corrupt officials, corrupt politicians, corrupt insiders and corrupt special interest groups?

Any wonder why so many Americans want a candidate who's outside of that system?

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Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:35 | 7007648 dbTX
dbTX's picture

I'm surprised it's only 75%.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:39 | 7007670 813kml
813kml's picture

The other 25% work for the government.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:41 | 7007681 Pool Shark
Pool Shark's picture

 

 

The other 25% believe in the Tooth Fairy...

 

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:51 | 7007738 knukles
knukles's picture

Well, counting up the votes we're now at 125% of the electorate without having giving credible representation to the FSA, illegal aliens or Chicago natives....

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:22 | 7007894 Barnaby
Barnaby's picture

"Hey I'm a voater, nobody said there'd be math involved!"

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:12 | 7007835 AGuy
AGuy's picture

I suspect that of the 75%, the majority are democrats and think only the RNC politicans are corrupt and think people like Obama, Hitlary, etc are saints.

It time to Face the truth, the FSA has won the war. Best option it to get out of harms way, go Galt if you can, or start collecting what ever handouts you can from the gov't. By working hard, playing by the rules, you only fund the power that robs you of labor, liberty and freedom. Time to give the FSA all you can by avoiding feeding the system.

 

 

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 05:46 | 7009678 Ace006
Ace006's picture

That's exactly the problem. The FSA is reliable and provides an automatic 14-25% of the votes. Middle class America has to turn out in increasingly greater numbers to overcome it. Romney got more of the White vote than Reagan, was it? And still lost.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:35 | 7007652 stant
stant's picture

If this market goes down much farther he will win

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 22:16 | 7008589 Fullthrottle
Fullthrottle's picture

I want it all to Tank for 2 reasons, first to take Killary out and second to have this shitshow collapse under Oblama so he can stick that in his fn legacy. 

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 05:50 | 7009682 Ace006
Ace006's picture

That's the only advantage to having Obama for 8 loooonnng years. Wall-to-wall ultra leftism and a giant helping of black resentment and pathology. A highly visible foretaste of the joys of diversity politics where whites are a minority in our own country.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:36 | 7007654 Crabshacker
Crabshacker's picture

Let me be very clear....Fuck ya!!

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:38 | 7007662 The Spanish Amb...
The Spanish Ambassador's picture

Demonrats all in on gun control.  Suicide move.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:35 | 7007970 seek
seek's picture

Just like '94. That got them the Republcan Revolution and the most house seats lost in nearly 50 years.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:45 | 7008988 Demdere
Demdere's picture

And just look what a big improvement that was.  Budget deficit, trade deficit, ... every measure of national well-being improved.

Right?

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:41 | 7008004 yellensNIRPles
yellensNIRPles's picture

This is going to cost them the election and they are too fucking stupid to figure it out. I know people who are life-long democrats, but who still believe in the right to bear arms for self defense.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 21:44 | 7008373 crossroaddemon
crossroaddemon's picture

Bullshit there is a larger agenda here. Please tell me you don't actually think the president or congress is allowed to make decisions.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 21:57 | 7008456 Implied Violins
Implied Violins's picture

True. All their moves are homicide moves.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:39 | 7007665 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 It sure as hell isn't about ethnicity.

 I think crackers, spicks, chinks, rug pilots,Niggas <> and mostly the individuals that have seen their hard earned savings "cut and diced"ZIRP away over the last 8 years, are FED UP!!!!

 Pardon the pun

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:10 | 7007823 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Rug pilots...

I like it. Colorful and unique.

At least to me.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:29 | 7007933 knukles
knukles's picture

T'is a beautiful term.  Worthy of use in the most delicate of intellectual Progressive company.
"What the fuck's wrong with rug pilots?  Jesus, you get pissed when I call 'em Muzzies, FFS"

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 21:04 | 7008145 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

Knuks, I was digging back decades for that Standard Oil moniker.

 Age before beauty ;-)

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:39 | 7007672 zipit
zipit's picture

The other 25% are what?  Brain dead?

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:45 | 7007710 Ms No
Ms No's picture

That and they haven't received their Obama Care bill yet.  Give it 30 days and they'll be shitting their pants.  People who hold all of those great service industry jobs that don't have medical insurance don't have a clue yet.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:12 | 7007829 wisebastard
Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:19 | 7007876 bigkahuna
bigkahuna's picture

Iv'e attempted to talk with some of the 25 percent. Each time I tried to talk some sense into them - they come back with stats like "the economy always does better under democrats". 

All I am trying to do is to inform them how utterly corrupt DC is - and all I get back are all of the democrat talking points.

These people are programmed and it is hook/line/sinker. The shit will have to fly before ANY of that group start to wake up. Most of them will parrot their talking points until they head to the guillotine - republicans are like this too, but they don't do the talking point thing as much as the dems - at least not on me because they see me as one of them to an extant.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 22:06 | 7008530 STP
STP's picture

Same experience here.

I got this in response to a post from a MarketWatch article on the White House doubting that N. Korea detonated a bomb:

 

Me:

"ISIS is just a JV Team", "We have ISIS contained", "You can keep your Doctor", "We've drawn a Red Line" and "We'll have the most Transparent Administration Ever".  That's just a few of the believable statements from the White House.

 

The response:

"Your quotes are a weak attempt at criticism of one of the greatest presidents of the last 100 years.  Just be thankful things are so much better now than 7 years ago when we were in serious trouble."

 

Me:

That is truly hilarious!  You just made my day!  Wow, I can only add, that you forgot to add the 'Sarcasm' tag to your post.  Thanks very much, for sharing your vivid hallucination with me!  The greatest president in 100 years?  That's really good slapstick humor!  JFK, naaah,, Eisenhower, naah, not good enough.

 

Obama is better than any of those guys!  I've never, ever seen anyone, wreck the country as bad as he has, with his lies, his ineptness, his awful stupidity, as President Obama.  And to think, when I served in the US Marines, under Jimmy Carter, I thought he was the worst I saw, boy, was I wrong!  Thanks again for the humor!

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:51 | 7009009 Demdere
Demdere's picture

And then, when i ask people like you, "Please list the policy differences between Shrub and Obama", I get exactly the same answer as from Ds, great indignation and "How can you eve nask such a stupid question?", much hand-waving, and no facts at all, ever.

Obamacare? Explain how it is different than Mass's RomneyCare?  Afghanistan, Iraq, Kurds, ...

Obama is a cia baby and part of that entire like of corruption, no different than Shrub and Clinton and Bush and probably Reagan.  The gov is ever-more broken, and policies are ever-stupider and ever-more driven by Greater Israel interests and criminality.

Nobody has seen 9/11 FF.  All other differences are minor.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:28 | 7007925 GotNuttin'todo
GotNuttin&#039;todo's picture

You can fool all of the people some of the time, and 25% of the people all of the time.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:39 | 7007675 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

It's a Silent coup for God's Sake!  WHAT MORE PROOF do you need?  Dual citizens in your government is an affront to every law in every land from the beginning of goddam time.

Mexican illegal immigrant is appointed to Calif seat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJKvVETw4vY

I am a legal resident in the USA and for fuck sake, I am watching you people fighting over who sits where on the life raft while the raft is being deflated!

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:50 | 7007719 Pool Shark
Pool Shark's picture

 

 

I hope your kid doesn't intend to go to college at a UC Campus:

http://universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary

Set the above Charts for "Freshman Admits" and select "Residency" below.

You will see that in the last 8 Years, foreigners have gone from just 2% of the UC freshman admits to 15%!!!!!!!!!

As a lifetime taxpaying Californian I'M PISSED THAT MY TAX DOLLARS ARE BEING USED TO GIVE A COLLEGE EDUCATION TO FOREIGNERS!!!

 

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:52 | 7007745 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

pool not only do you pay for them to get an edumacation, obuma is adding new visa's by the 100,000, to give them jobs over americans at lower cost to business..

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:54 | 7007752 knukles
knukles's picture

Nor do you want your kids indoctrinated by the CA system of Higher Advanced Sophistry and Bullshit.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:22 | 7007891 duo
duo's picture

UCLA should become UFLA.  University of foreigners, latinos, and asians.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:28 | 7007924 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Not to back up the universities, but they started wholesale foriegner student recruitment drives when MBAs started running the schools.  In order to find additional funding sources, they go first for out of state (if a state college) and then internationally.  Those guys are pure profit.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:35 | 7007966 Somewhat Evolve...
Somewhat Evolved Monkey's picture

As a lifetime taxpaying Californian, I'm sure you have a number of things to complain about, one of many being the UC system!

 

Seriously, god Effing damn. People say California is in horrible shape economically, and to be honest, everything I saw in California, from Norcal to Socal, made me think everything is WORSE than people tell me!

 

The amount of homeless, gangbangers, and poverty in California, is incredible. 

 

I've been traveled extensively in my day all over the world, and I kid you not, California is the biggest shit hole I have ever visited. Only thing comparable are inner city ghettos. The difference with California is that the poverty seems to be spread over a much larger geographic area.

 

 

 

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:50 | 7008058 yellensNIRPles
yellensNIRPles's picture

Relax, it's all part of the plan:

  1. Crush your citizens economically over a period of decades while you simultaneously foment global war and fracture the nation along racial and economic lines.
  2. Promise young citizens and foreigners alike bright futures and give them easily acquirable federal student loans with essentially no limits, fully understanding that the economy will not exist in which to work and pay the loans off.
  3. Start a global war to repair the economy after you can't hold it together anymore and all your buddies in the MIC are in need of another round of capital injection.
  4. Offer to wipe all college student loans out completely for any person who voluntarily joins the US military to fight for freedom and democracy.
  5. Watch war unfold, watch economy grow and unemployment disappear as your country builds bombs, tanks and airplanes, etc.
  6. Watch your youth population (read: future demographic emergency) dwindle and immigration stop dead in its tracks. 
  7. Continue selling citizens on freedom and democracy while they buy war bonds and support their now fellow citizens together (read: cooperative interdependence).
  8. End war after everyone is rich while your kids are still alive (can't let it get so bad everyone goes, now can we?).
  9. Smoke cigar. Drink brandy.

 

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:56 | 7007764 11b40
11b40's picture

Dual Citizens......it can't be said enough, but you will NEVER hear the words mentioned in the MSM.....NEVER.

Think about that, and remember that for over 200 years this was not allowed.  But in 1967 Jewish Justice Abe Fortiss pushed it through the Supreme Court, and now the entire government is infested with upper level managers with dual loyalties.  Try telling your wife you want a dual marriage, and I'll bet she can explain to you why that is not a very good idea.  If she can't, her lawyer will.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:08 | 7007816 GhostOfDiogenes
GhostOfDiogenes's picture

The disinformation agents of zion hide behind their downrates like good little rats.

Rats. Everyone is a fucking rat in this country.

Ready to squeal on their neighbors.

USA=home of snitch rats.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:19 | 7007869 11b40
11b40's picture

Drive-by down vote.  I wish someone would try to debate this and tell us all why having dual citizens in high level positions is a good idea for any country.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:25 | 7007906 GhostOfDiogenes
GhostOfDiogenes's picture

Its antisemitic to question the integrity of duel citizens on zerohedge.

Also the third shift of hasbarabots are on tonight and upvoting each other and down voting their enemies.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:01 | 7007782 lincolnsteffens
lincolnsteffens's picture

I repeat, do not vote. Go to your town or city clerk's office with a statement that you revoke your voter registration. That registration form is proof that you are a citizen of the UNITED STATES which is the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CORPORATION. As a US Citizen you are the same as a citizen of the District of Columbia and a subject of the corporation that administers the territory under the 14th Amendment. In the eyes of the Administrative Legal system you do not have a right to the Constitution for the united States. You are a Statutory Fictional Person instead of a human being on the land with unalienable rights granted by the Creator.

This is the hidden part of the law that you have been deprived of knowing about. You think the law is too complicated to understand because that is what you have been brainwashed to believe. It is not so. The basics of the law of the American Constitution vs. the Commercial and administrative/admiralty law of the for profit entity referred to as the UNITED STATES are not difficult to grasp. The top of the Federal Gov. are laughing at your ignorance all the way to the Bank. You have been defrauded by your own government with the complicity of the Bar Members who profit mightily.

Just my opinion based upon 4 years of continuing research.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:23 | 7007800 GhostOfDiogenes
GhostOfDiogenes's picture

Good luck leaving the country without any papers.

I agree with you in theory.

However, you cannot get your orgiginal copy of your birth certificate.

Dunn & Broadstreet own it.

Good luck getting it back.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:37 | 7007979 Somewhat Evolve...
Somewhat Evolved Monkey's picture

Your comment and apparent try hardedness is way too much for me.

 

I just don't vote. Fuck it. Fuck Trump, Fuck Hilary, Fuck Bernie Sanders. Fuck em. They're all a bunch of shit heads.

 

I'm not wasting my time with that shit. You shouldn't either.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 21:08 | 7008168 PeaceLover
PeaceLover's picture

Vote with your dollars..
I quit.
Not to many left to tax.. LOL how are the government workers going to pay themselves(can't tax your self enough to tax yourself)
they will have to raise taxes on the .0001% that's where all the money is anyway.
LOL

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:07 | 7008853 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Look up U.C.C. 1-308 (Uniform Commercial Code)

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 22:29 | 7008664 Sanity Bear
Sanity Bear's picture

the guy who coined the phrase "voting is a suggestion box for slaves" is still batting 1.000

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 19:40 | 7007680 souljaboy
souljaboy's picture

Oh Holy Fuck!!!

"The perception that there's widespread corruption in the national government..."

 

That's where I stopped reading.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:37 | 7007980 PeaceLover
PeaceLover's picture

Your so right that's a puff piece Perception simple math no perception about it!
FACTS HERE

if it wasn't for the News People distorting and lying about the the facts everyone would be on same page..

25% don't think its crooked more government workers, police and paid for shills in the USA than I thought!

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 20:40 | 7007997 Vendetta
Vendetta's picture

yeah, its a perception, not a reality.  The globalists have done SOOO MUCH for Amerika..... who needs terrorists when we have globalists?

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