Government corruption has emerged as a top issue in the upcoming United States midterm elections, with an overwhelming majority of Americans saying government officials use their public office for personal financial gain, according to an exclusive Harris poll for the Guardian.
Nearly nine out of 10 Americans said government corruption, as defined as elected officials putting their own or their donors’ financial interests ahead of the public’s, is a problem, according to the survey.
Three-quarters (76 percent) of voters said elected officials care more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people.
Voters were more likely to say that government corruption (65 percent) is more concerning than corporate power (29 percent).
Just under 10 percent said that neither concerns them.
The rising cost of living is still expected to drive the election, with 36 percent of voters saying it is the single most important issue to how they plan to vote in the mid-terms.
But in a slate of other issues including immigration, housing costs, abortion, crime and safety, and artificial intelligence (AI), corruption was the next top issue.
The results come after nearly two years of Donald Trump’s second term, where the president has both figuratively and literally reshaped Washington.
The president demolished the historic East Wing of the White House to make way for a US$400 million ballroom — US$335 million of which he said is coming from private donors, including companies such as Apple and Nvidia.
The federal government is down more than 420 000 workers after Elon Musk was given the power to introduce huge job cuts after donating nearly US$300 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, Trump’s sons are running the family’s lucrative cryptocurrency business that has made Trump US$1 billion since returning to the White House.
And Trump himself accepted a US$400 million private jet as a gift from the Qatari royal family.
These actions have not gone unnoticed.
Voters in the Harris poll were twice as likely to say that Republicans have a bigger corruption problem than Democrats.
Forty percent of voters, including 29 percent of Republicans, said the Grand Old Party (GOP) has a bigger corruption problem.
A third (32 percent) of voters said that both parties have the problem equally, while 21 percent said that Democrats have the bigger problem. Most Independents (42 percent) said that both parties share the problem equally.
The economy, as experienced by everyday Americans, has been vastly different from the portrait painted by Wall Street.
The stock market has been soaring on the back of never-ending AI spending.
In early October, both the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq stock indices hit record highs.
Americans in the top 1 percent of wealth own half of the stock market while the bottom 50 percent own just over 1 percent of the market.
Armed with more funds than ever, America’s wealthiest people have been driving even more donations into elections. — Guardian
