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71% of Americans say politics has reached a 'dangerous low point': Poll

US President Donald Trump receives high-fives from students as he arrives at Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas, October 25, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The majority of Americans believe that politics in the United States have reached a "dangerous low point" under President Donald Trump, according to a new poll.

The Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released Saturday found 71 percent of voters viewed the current political divisions in the US comparable to the Vietnam War era.

The figure reached 77 percent among individuals who were adults during the Vietnam War.

In contrast, only 29 percent of participants said they believed this period in American politics is "similar to most periods of disagreement."

At 51 percent, a little more than half of the voters thought Trump deserved "a lot" of the blame for the division while 65 percent blamed the trend on money in politics and 56 said wealthy donors were the culprits.

The American media also received a big part of the blame, with 49 percent of the voters holding news organizations responsible for the deep-running divisions.

The poll also found that the number of Americans who aren't proud of the way democracy works in their country had doubled in just three years, from 18 percent in 2014 to 36 percent now.

There was also a three-fold increase in the number of people who thought the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections was not legitimate. For Trump the figure stood at 42 percent compared to about 14 percent who said the same about former President Barack Obama's election in 2008.

Trump government dysfunctional

The poll also found that dysfunction was rampant across the federal government, with 70 percent deeming the Trump administration as dysfunctional and 80 percent holding a similar opinion about Congress.

Trump’s rhetoric, both during last year’s presidential campaign and after entering the White House, has been blamed as the main reason behind racial tensions and political rifts across the American public.

The Republican head of state’s approval rating has also dipped sharply. The figure hit 38 percent last week in a Fox News poll, the lowest score in any of the Republican-leaning network’s surveys.


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