Upon winning the presidential election back in 2008, Barry "Almighty’ then came into office with a list of some very specific objectives, chief among them was his desire to take America down a peg, or even two or three. And he quickly set to work to do just that. Fast-forward six years and it would seem that he has been able to achieve what is an impressive level of success in that endeavor, even right here at home. Because today as our nation celebrates our independence, we find that our patriotic belief in our national superiority and our exceptionalism in the world can now be said to be waning.
Worse still, we find out that today more than three-fourths of Americans now firmly believe that corruption in their government is fairly widespread. And that figure can be said to chart the impact of the last few years of what has at least seemed to be a near endless stream of administrative scandals that have combined to taint, even further, public opinion against Washington. It’s now gotten to the point where it seems like every time we turn around we’re finding out about some new instance where our elected officials have once again demonstrated their blatant disregard for the will of the people.
So now, courtesy of a study recently released by the Pew Research Center, we find that 58 percent of Americans describe the United States as "one of the greatest countries." Just 28 percent say we "stand above all other countries in the world," a benchmark that has dropped 10 percentage points since the last time the poll was taken in 2011. Well I suppose it can be said that’s that quite understandable, after all, we’ve had three more years of listening Barry ‘Almighty", and his fellow Democrats, as they constantly sought to tear down our country at every possible opportunity.
More so, the biggest drop in national opinion comes from Republicans. Just 37 percent said the United States leads the world, a dive of 15 points over just three years ago when 52 percent of GOP voters put us on top. By turn, independents and Democrats have dropped 7 and 8 points respectively, in a survey taken Feb. 27-March 16 of this year. But let’s face it, there’s a reason for such a wide disparity. I think it’s very fair to say that patriotism and love of country is a pretty rare commodity among nearly all Democrats as well as most independents since they too tend to be more liberal than not.
The study also reveals a rather troubling trend in that younger Americans register a less positive opinion of their country's strengths in the world than their older counterparts. The Pew study found that just 15 percent of 18- to 29-year-old Americans believe the United States is "the greatest country in the world, a 27 percent dip since 2011. Well that too is perfectly understandable and can be easily explained. Let’s face it what is it that they are likely to hear throughout their entire ‘education’ from kindergarten through college? It’s how vile their country is. So how could we expect anything different from our young?
The Pew study shows a stark contrast to a similar survey taken by Gallup in 2006, which found that Americans registered as among those most satisfied with their country in the world in terms of freedom to do what they want with their lives. Today, according to a similar Gallup study released on July 1, such positive feelings have essentially nosedived as the United States ranks 36th among 120 nations in satisfaction. Today 72 percent of Americans say they are satisfied, dipping below such places as Cambodia, 93 percent, Uzbekistan, 92 percent, and top ranker New Zealand at 94 percent.
Also according to Gallup, who seemed to be trying to put the best possible spin on this news, "The decline in perceived freedom among Americans could be attributed to the U.S. economy. Many Americans continue to lack confidence in the economy and see it as one of the biggest problems facing the country." As for myself, the fact that I am personally feeling a lot less free these days has absolutely nothing to do with the state of our economy. What it has everything to do with is the fact that our government seems to be interested only in coming up with new ways to better control how I’m able to live out my life.
Here it would appear that Gallup may agree with me. Because it said, "Another possible explanation for the decline in freedom is how Americans feel about their government. Gallup asks an additional question worldwide about whether people believe corruption is widespread throughout their government. This item is related to perceptions of freedom at the national level." Gallup noted that about 79 percent of Americans now believe government corruption is widespread, up from 59 percent in 2006. So there you have it, in this era of Barry, more Americans than ever see their government as being patently corrupt.
No comments:
Post a Comment