58% of Americans believe US democracy in danger of collapse: poll

By AFP
Published January 12, 2022

Trump supporters clash with police as they storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 - Copyright AFP SAID KHATIB

One year after the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump, six out of 10 Americans believe the country’s democracy is in danger of collapse, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Seventy-six percent of those surveyed in the poll by Quinnipiac University said they think political instability in the United States is a bigger danger than foreign threats.

A majority of those polled — 58 percent — said they think the nation’s democracy is in danger of collapse. Thirty-seven percent disagreed.

Fifty-three percent meanwhile said they expect political divisions in the country to worsen over their lifetime.

As for the likelihood of another attack in the United States like the one on Congress, 53 percent of those polled said it was very or somewhat likely.

A special committee of the House of Representatives is investigating the January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol, with 61 percent of those surveyed saying they back the probe. A total of 83 percent of Democrats favor it and 60 percent of Republicans oppose it.

The poll also had bad news for President Joe Biden with just 33 percent of those surveyed saying they approved of the job he was doing.

Fifty-three percent said they disapproved while 13 percent had no opinion.

Biden had a 38 percent job approval rating in a Quinnipiac poll in November.

The nationwide poll of 1,313 US adults was conducted between January 7 and 10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, Quinnipiac said.