Why Americans hate politics

By Schumpeter

THE Washington Post has conducted a poll on Americans' reactions to the drama in Washington, DC:

Asked for single-word characterizations of the budget negotiations, the top words in the poll — conducted in the days before an apparent deal was struck — were “ridiculous,” “disgusting” and “stupid.” Overall, nearly three-quarters of Americans offered a negative word; just 2 percent had anything nice to say.

“Ridiculous” was the most frequently mentioned word among Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. It was also No. 1 in an April poll about the just-averted government shutdown. In the new poll, the top 27 words are negative ones, with “frustrating,” “poor,” “terrible,” “disappointing,“ “childish,” “messy” and “joke” rounding out the top 10.

I suspect that the costs of economic stagnation are going to be particularly high in the United States, given its fragmented political system and polarised politics, and that this is going to be a significant problem for American businesses in the years to come, particularly as the fate of America's biggest companies becomes divorced from the fate of the broader economy.