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AP-NORC poll: Many remain critical of state of US democracy
Associated Press ^ | October 19, 2022 | Gary Fields and Christina A. Cassidy

Posted on 10/18/2022 10:42:58 PM PDT by Olog-hai

Many Americans remain pessimistic about the state of U.S. democracy and the way elected officials are chosen — nearly two years after a divisive presidential election spurred false claims of widespread fraud and a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Only about half of Americans have high confidence that votes in the upcoming midterm elections will be counted accurately, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, though that’s an improvement from about 4 in 10 saying that just before the 2020 presidential election. Just 9% of U.S. adults think democracy is working “extremely” or “very well,” while 52% say it’s not working well.

In a reversal from two years ago, Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to say democracy is not working well. This year, 68% of Republicans feel this way compared to 32% two years ago. The share of Democrats with a sour outlook on how democracy is functioning in the U.S. dropped from 63% to 40%. […]

The AP-NORC poll also found a large segment of Republicans — 58% — still believe Biden’s election wasn’t legitimate. That’s down slightly from 66% in July 2021. …

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: apfakenews; apnorcpoll; democracy; fakenews
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1 posted on 10/18/2022 10:42:58 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

First of all, we are NOT a Democracy. We are a Representative Republic. The leftist school system in the U.S. has been preaching this “Democracy” garbage to our children for generations.


2 posted on 10/18/2022 11:10:31 PM PDT by 4Runner
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To: 4Runner
Because our representatives are chosen democratically, we are a form of democracy.

Especially since even our US senators are chosen democratically, which took power away from the states making our political system less of a republic.

3 posted on 10/18/2022 11:16:38 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: Olog-hai

Our democracy is working as well as ever to mask the oligarchy that has continuously run the show since at least the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.


4 posted on 10/18/2022 11:17:24 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

That is not democracy. That in fact is the definition of a republic. (Except for the matter of the Senate, which was established to represent the interests of state governments in the federal government and to give state governments power therein.)


5 posted on 10/18/2022 11:19:45 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear
What will be the course of this revolution? Above all, it will establish a democratic constitution, and through this, the direct and indirect dominance of the proletariat.
That is from The Principles of Communism, by Friedrich Engels. Note the purpose for which he sees democracy as the tool. He also saw the US Constitution (falsely) as democratic, but to this end:
In America, where a democratic constitution has already been established, the communists must make the common cause with the party that will turn this constitution against the bourgeoisie and use it in the interests of the proletariat …
However, the Constitution did not have any really democratic characteristics until the Seventeenth Amendment, as you noted.

And what is democracy really, when it comes down to it?
(I)t is very clear that in fundamental theory, socialism and democracy are almost, if not quite, one and the same. They both rest at bottom upon the absolute right of the community to determine its own destiny and that of its members. Men as communities are supreme over men as individuals. …
As noted by Woodrow Wilson back in 1887. Has there been any other application of democracy in history? Democracy as defined here is a form of government that is against individual rights and promotes collectivism, and I have not seen any real-world examples that contradict that.
6 posted on 10/18/2022 11:28:59 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

So a journalist from AP knows more than half the Americans who don’t trust elections?


7 posted on 10/18/2022 11:40:27 PM PDT by willk (Local news media. Just as dangerous as national media.)
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To: Olog-hai
As more and more people were allowed to vote, our republic drifted toward direct democracy. When it was only people who owned property, i.e. stakeholders, then things ran pretty well.

However much people want to fantasize and think that we could have stopped at a "representative republic" it was never going to stay that way. Democracy was baked in from the very beginning.

It was always going to be the case that more and more people would demand the vote, and once a class of people got the vote it was going to be impossible to take it away.

This process is not communism or socialism or collectivism. It is classical liberalism following its inevitable path to destruction.

8 posted on 10/19/2022 12:22:33 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: Olog-hai

As my late brother would often say, universal sufferage is a suicide pact.


9 posted on 10/19/2022 12:29:50 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (/s)
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To: Olog-hai
Hopefully, we can go back to a republic, as we are supposed to be :P
10 posted on 10/19/2022 12:30:37 AM PDT by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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To: Olog-hai

The left thinks if they say it enough, people will soon be convinced that our nation is a democracy. It is not. They are changing the language, erasing history, and destroying our nation. Push back on this language each opportunity you get. Mock them for their ignorance in even thinking our nation is a democracy.

I,for one, am getting tired of Biden, his handlers, and the media using the phrase “a threat to our democracy”. This is not an error on their part. It’s deliberate. Soon, they will have also convinced a majority of the people that the electoral college is a mistake, and the popular vote should decide who is President.


11 posted on 10/19/2022 12:30:56 AM PDT by CFW
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

So socialism “was baked in from the very beginning”? With all due respect, that was not the case. Never mind “classical liberalism” being a catch-all term without a real definition.


12 posted on 10/19/2022 1:01:48 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: 4Runner
First of all, we are NOT a Democracy. We are a Representative Republic. The leftist school system in the U.S. has been preaching this “Democracy” garbage to our children for generations.

We are a representative democracy.

Have you ever voted in a congressional election? That's democracy.

Have you ever voted in a statewide election? That's democracy.

13 posted on 10/19/2022 1:42:34 AM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: Olog-hai

“Many Americans remain pessimistic about the state of U.S. democracy and the way elected officials are chosen — nearly two years after a stolen presidential election spurred false denials of widespread fraud and a mostly peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol was met with violence and the murder of at least two protestors by the capital police.”

fixed it for them.


14 posted on 10/19/2022 2:34:19 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

I read somewhere that “Democracies” have an lifespan of something around 300 years, give or take a few decades, before they are replaced by dictatorships of various stripe, i.e.,kings, potentiates, strong men etc.

We’ve had a good run...


15 posted on 10/19/2022 2:48:00 AM PDT by RedMonqey
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To: Olog-hai

It’s a Republic, not a democracy.

Democracy is where 3 wolves and 2 sheep vote on what is for dinner. We know how that ends.

A constitutional republic protects the sheep and wolves alike from all predators. Presumably, the list of predators includes our own government.

And frankly, we seem to be skipping “democracy” (rule by the mob) and sliding right into “dictatorship”.


16 posted on 10/19/2022 3:08:59 AM PDT by meyer (FBI = KGB for the DNC; IRS = Gestapo)
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To: Olog-hai

17 posted on 10/19/2022 3:46:13 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true . . . I have no proof, but they're true.)
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To: 4Runner; who_would_fardels_bear; Drew68

The 17th Amendment rendered the Framers’ federal republic into a democratic republic.

‘Democracy’ to the rats means we are free to vote rats into absolute power. Majority rule is democracy.


18 posted on 10/19/2022 4:39:27 AM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: meyer

Post #18.


19 posted on 10/19/2022 4:40:46 AM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Drew68

Incorrect. That is characteristic of republics, not democracies. There is a distinction, no matter how much proponents of democracy insist otherwise; the chief end rests on whether constitutions of law are permanent, resulting in stability (republic) or changed wilfully according to the aims of power-hungry politicians (democracy).

High school civics classes in the 1980s were teaching that the USA was founded as a “representative democracy” instead of a republic. They were lying for decades.


20 posted on 10/19/2022 8:04:39 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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