 There was a poll that came out in early December that I never got the chance to talk about on the program But I do want to talk about that right now when I have some additional time Because this is something that is actually pretty surprising to me more people than I expected actually know that democracy is currently Declining in the United States. It's in trouble And if we want to preserve democracy for future generations Then now is the time to act before it's too late But before I talk about that any further we'll go to the article So Jessica Corbett of common dreams explains the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School surveyed adults aged 18 to 29 Across the political spectrum from October 26th to November 8th amid ongoing GOP attacks on US democracy in the form of gerrymandering and blocking various federal voting rights legislation among all respondents 39% described the United States as a democracy in trouble while 13% called it a failed Democracy that compared with 27% who believe the nation is a somewhat functioning democracy 13% who said they don't know and only 7% who think it is a healthy Democracy as common dreams reported last month another recent poll found that violent Anti-democratic views are thriving on the American right and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance even dubbed the United States a backsliding democracy over half 57% of all the young American surveyed by IOP said it is very important that the United States is a Democracy and another 21% said it is somewhat important Now I'd be remiss to not point out that this poll was conducted at the beginning of December in the lead up to the Summit for Democracy where Joe Biden literally invited Juan Guaido who is the puppet the United States is trying to install as president in Venezuela again Puppet invited to the summit for democracy So while I would say that Most of the attacks from democracy are coming from the far right in the United States Democrats certainly aren't helping They're certainly not helping when they do things like this when you show to people that you don't actually care about democracy You don't care about who's elected in and para transitions as you bring the puppet The United States is trying to install in a different country. It's just yeah So I am actually pleasantly surprised by the results of this poll I'm thankful that most people still think that it's very important that the United States remain a democracy But the fact that only 7% think that it's a healthy democracy That is a good sign because it would be worse I'd argue if our democracy was declining being eroded and everybody thought everything was Copacetic that would be bad because in order to fix a problem You at least have to acknowledge that a problem exists and people do acknowledge it and you know the Poll or not the poll the report those that was referenced that said that were a backsliding democracy It explains that a lot of the decline that we're seeing here Originates from Donald Trump's claim that the election was stolen when there's no evidence that that is indeed the case and the problem is that These things don't just occur in a vacuum. The United States isn't the only country in the world so when Trump says something like that and it actually has ramifications other Far-right leaders in other countries are going to see that and they're gonna replicate that same behavior And that's exactly what's happening So that claim by Donald Trump was so disastrous because he single-handedly in the span of a couple of months Delegitimized our entire electoral process And that's not to say that our democracy was perfect before Donald Trump. There's issues that need to be addressed I mean money and politics is a huge huge contributing factor that is taking away people's voices Dairymandering is an issue electoral reform is absolutely needed, but when you just delegitimize elections altogether People no longer think that the system is going to be conducive to change Nothing that they do is going to create change Therefore the only solution if you want political change is to do violence now I don't want to see people do that I hope that they're not going to come to this conclusion But that's certainly the conclusion that people on January 6th came to they thought the election was being stolen And they thought that they were defending democracy by trying to stop a legitimate transition from taking place So it's an issue here because there's a clash you have people who genuinely believe that The election was stolen from them in 2020 and Trump is perpetuating this lie and he's probably going to run again in 2024 and then you have the other side of the people viewed as the enemies by the people who think that they stole the election and They're incapable of actually getting anything done I mean the Democratic Party are most likely not going to pass voting rights reform and if that happens then we're disenfranchising more and more people and What you do to protect democracy and strengthen democracy is you consolidate democracy you never go backwards You always add more and more democracy to the system, right? You're never gonna start off perfectly most democracies when a country democratizes. They're very fragile They don't have very much civil liberties to offer the electoral institutions are usually pretty fragile and there's some foul play here and there But what you do is you always try to consolidate democracy you expand suffrage to more and more people until it's universal You add civil liberties. You add more protections to these institutions. You legitimize them But we're going backwards. So, you know, the fact that people notice it is Really important. That's a huge first step that makes me feel a little bit believed now It's just a matter of will people care enough to fight to preserve democracy because 57% of young people they think, you know, it's very important that the United States remains a democracy and 21% say it's somewhat important. So at least we've got that so, you know people are conditioned to want to support democracy, but My fear is that that will change if attacks on the electoral system from Donald Trump in the far right Continue. So, you know, this poll is really interesting to me I wouldn't have thought that that many young people thought democracy was kind of vulnerable But it is good to see that it's good to know that young people care about democracy and they know that currently it's it's in jeopardy Do yourself a favor and click the join button on YouTube to become a member Because Mike's doing a great job getting to watch his videos before everyone else is Tremendous many people are saying this join today folks. You won't regret it