Poll: Americans see rule of law declining in U.S.
Data: Charles F.
Kettering Foundation and Gallup; Note: Values shown may not total 100% due to rounding and exclusion of "don't know" responses; Chart: Noah Bressner/Axios Visuals A majority of Americans say the rule of law in the U.S. is weaker now than a decade ago, when Donald Trump was first elected president, according to a massive new survey of more than 23,000 U.S. adults.
Driving the news: 78% of those responding to the survey by Gallup and the Charles F.
Kettering Foundation for its Democracy for All Project say government officials must always follow laws and the Constitution.
But just 28% trust that political leaders will be held accountable if they don't.
Zoom in: Throwing out incumbents was respondents' top choice (17%) when asked what one step could be taken to most improve U.S. democracy.
That response reflects a prominent theme of a midterm campaign that's shadowed by widespread voter dissatisfaction.
Other steps suggested by survey respondents included electoral reform and improved voting access (13%) and limiting executive power (9%).
One stunning stat: Older Republicans (65+) appear significantly less trusting of election officials now than just a year ago, with 42% saying it's reasonable to assume that election officials acted improperly if election outcomes are surprising, up from 30%.
By the numbers: The share of Americans who say the rule of law is weaker now than in 2016 is four times higher than the share who think it's stronger (56% compared with 14%), while 29% say it's unchanged.
Democrats and independents were much likelier than Republicans to say it's weaker.
The top reason respondents cited for getting involved in a social or political cause: Feeling an important right or freedom is being threatened (27%), followed by feeling you can make a difference (26%) and seeing officials abuse or misuse power (19%).
57% said they prefer candidates who challenge powerful or established interests, while 42% prefer candidates who work within the establishment.
What we're watching : Two-thirds of Americans said democracy is the best form of government, the same as last year.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.axios.com — the content belongs to Axios.
