While Americans are constantly bombarded with messages about journalistic ethics and international fellowship, we seem to be becoming inoculated against it.
A new poll by the Pew Research Center has found that, among those in “advanced economies” surveyed, Americans have the least favorable views of the leaders in major developed and developing nations (i.e. China). The poll was carried out using a sample of 2,596 US adults and 16,254 adults from other Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. The poll found that, among all those nations surveyed, Americans ranked consistently lower than average (always below the median) in their favorably toward leaders such as Biden (60%), Macron (58%), Merkel (63%), Putin (16%), and Xi (15%).
Incidentally, of all leaders, Merkel had the highest median rating (77%) and Xi had the lowest (20%).
These findings come not long after a recent YouGov poll indicated that Americans also have the lowest level of trust in media out of 46 surveyed countries. Correlation does not necessitate causation, but it begs the question if the connection is related.
As well, a recent poll conducted by Rasmussen poll shows that a growing number of Americans believe that at least some form of cheating took place during the 2020 election.
Trust in the government people elect and in the reporting relayed to them regarding national and world affairs is vital to the cohesive sense of civic identity of a people – something that is evidently absent in the world (namely in America) today. Gone are the days when a president or anyone – or anything else – could enjoy approval from a clear and consistent majority. The establishment is bleeding support in numbers to the point where any official may only be speaking to less than half of their constituents.