6 ms·
It's not the government that's the problem per-se, it's the fact half the US supports that government
by iso1631 8mo ago
It's not the government that's the problem per-se, it's the fact half the US supports that government
- Retric 8mo agoThis administration has terrible approval ratings. https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/approval-rating https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump...
- loloquwowndueo 8mo agoTotally a case of “gee, who’d have thunk”
- pupppet 8mo agoApproval ratings should be far lower than this.
- epistasis 8mo agoYes, and a major reason they aren't lower is because of tech executives that control the media and mass communication in the US.
- mrbombastic 8mo agoAgreed but we also have to stop saying "the majority support this" or "half the country supports this" it ain't true and leads people to feel hopeless.
- ryandrake 8mo agoYet, if we re-did the election today, we'd have the same outcome. People might not support what is happening but they will never "vote for the other guy." I personally know people who disagree with everything that's going on, but they'll still vote (R) next time "because I'm a (R)," as if it's their intrinsic physical trait like hair color.
- cfloyd 8mo agoThis is a good analysis but I’ll say at least for me, it has been a lesser of two evils scenario. Both parties have some really crazy ideas and platforms. I loathe the two party system for this reason.
- dmoy 8mo agoYea that's a fair take Like you will go to an election, and your choices will be Republican candidate: "I support deporting your family, I will not only not support cleaner energy but will actively work to increase coal usage, and I think your trans cousin should be forced to transition back even if it makes them commit suicide." Democratic candidate: "I think all of that stuff the Republican candidate said is crazy and wrong. If elected, I will strive to make all your guns illegal, so that eventually Republican-supporting institutions like the police and military, and Republican states, are the only ones with guns."
- ModernMech 8mo ago“I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers on school safety and gun violence. “Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376097-trump-take-the-guns-first-go-through-due-process-second/ https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376097-trump-tak...
- dmoy 8mo agoI don't doubt that Trump would take guns away from people who don't support him. It's kinda right out of an authoritarian playbook. Not sure what that has to do with what I said though.
- throwway120385 8mo agoKinda goes against gun rights as being part of his platform at all. At least with the "gun control" laws they still try to maintain some gun rights. Whereas the Republican playbook now is just "oh you shouldn't be allowed to carry unless I think you're a cool person." Like that guy that got shot in MSP. He had a concealed carry permit and he was disarmed. People in Trump's administration were still saying "he shouldn't have had a gun at a protest." Where were they when we saw hundreds if not thousands of guys with AR-15's and plate carriers flanking the BLM protests?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- iso1631 8mo ago44% is "about half" If you had 1000 coins and put them into two piles one of 440 and one of 560 it would be "about half" But if your argument is that only 154 million people support this government and that's fine because if it was 174 million there'd be a problem, then sure.
- wat10000 8mo ago"The majority" I'll grant you, but I'd say 43.4% is close enough to "half" for these purposes. It's only a touch lower than his poll numbers right before the election. Compare with Kier Starmer, who as of this writing has not sent armed goons into his own cities, wrecked all of his international trade and tourism, alienated his allies, or once again invaded the Middle East. His approval rating is about 20%!
- nradov 8mo agoWell Starmer giving away the Diego Garcia military base has certainly alienated at least one ally. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-calls-uks-chagos-deal-with-mauritius-an-act-total-weakness-2026-01-20/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-calls-uks-chagos-...
- iso1631 8mo agoYet nobody in the UK gives a stuff, other than those who thing the Chagosians are being done in And a few months ago America was endorsing the plan Worth nothing that this was a Tory inititive -- Truss and Sunak did pretty much all the work, it was their idea.
- sandworm101 8mo agoThere are hard and soft approval ratings. The soft number is the count of how many people will vote for/against in the next election. The hard number is how many want a change today, how many will support recalling thier representatives in order to force change today. In that number, the current administration has widespread support.
- greedo 8mo agoThere is no mechanism for recall of Congressional officers.
- sandworm101 8mo agoPlenty of state-level reps can be recalled today. That noone is even trying sends the message that the population is generally OK with waiting until the next election ... an election that will be run/managed/counted by those representatives.
- greedo 8mo agoI specifically said Congressional representatives.
- jacquesm 8mo agoNo legal ones anyway.
- dotancohen 8mo ago[flagged]
- jacquesm 8mo agoI'm not advocating for it, merely observing that that seems to be the way in which the USA prematurely gets rid of politicians that it does not like. It's revolting, the amount of violence in politics and >> what even banana republics get away with and that's on both sides of the aisle so I don't give a rats ass about which side you or anybody else is on. FYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_American_politicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_American_... Fix your systems, get rid of corruption and try - for once - to act like you mean it with all that talk of democracy because I'm not seeing it. Meanwhile, on HN it is customary to try to not read the worst into a comment. Thank you. Edit: oh, I see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47270814 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47270814 Pot, kettle, and so on, you seem to have no trouble with the USA murdering people.
- lordgroff 8mo agoThese are shockingly high.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoI love the copium. If I have 10 friends and ask all of them where they want to go for dinner and 6 say let’s have Chinese and the other 4 say let’s kill Bob and eat him, I still have a shitty friend group.
- jacquesm 8mo agoThose are MUCH higher than they should be by now. It makes me wonder what the approval rating of a ham sandwich would be, and I would not be surprised if it was higher.
- actsasbuffoon 8mo agoA ham sandwich has some strong qualities. I’m not kidding. The president would do basically nothing for four years, which would cause some things to move slowly. But it would be a very stable environment. No random tariffs via executive order, no random wars or invasions, no governing via tweet. Ham sandwich would maybe be one of our better presidents. Top 50%, probably.
- TwoNineA 8mo agoControversial opinion, it's way more than half: 1/3 voted for the orange man, 1/3 didn't bother go to vote because "BoTh SideS ARe thE SamE!" and 1/3 tried to do the right thing.
- JohnMakin 8mo agoIt may surprise you, but it’s generally accepted that 1/3rd is less than 1/2.
- TwoNineA 8mo ago1/3 explicitly approve and 1/3 implicity approve. If my math is mathing, that's 2/3 and it's larger than 1/2.
- dahart 8mo agoIt’s a large and incorrect assumption, and not mathing, to lump non-voters into supporters, especially when the administration is purging eligible voters.
- Larrikin 8mo agoEligible voters should absolutely be lumped in as implicit supporters. Disenfranchised voters have been made ineligible so should not have been in the statistic.
- abletonlive 8mo ago[flagged]
- hamdingers 8mo agoAn eligible voter who chooses not to vote makes one unambiguous statement: "I'm fine with either outcome"
- 8mo ago
- univacky 8mo agoAmerican here. I have to agree with this sentiment (without getting into the math of our deeply flawed election system). The administration could not do any of this without the support of Congress, which has not wavered. That support is unwavering because those elected officials are not getting negative feedback from their voters and donors, so they have every expectation that staying this course will work out just great for them. This administration's actions only continue with the approval of their party who put them and keep them in power.
- tzs 8mo agoCongress has received plenty of negative feedback from their voters. The intensity and frequency of Republican voters confronting their representatives over many administration policies (e.g., Medicaid cuts, ACA subsidy cuts, tariffs, Epstein, influence of unelected officials) when those representatives hold in-person town halls has led to representatives greatly reducing in-person town halls, replacing them with tele-town halls so they can cut off people.
- Sabinus 8mo agoIf that isn't reflected in the midterms then it's just theatre. Time will tell.
- ulfw 8mo agoIt won't be. Even if the house swings to the democrat side it will be a marginal swing only, not a massive change. Who knows if the Senate will even flip at all. Half of America loves what's happening and the other half doesn't believe the first half loves it.