I'M A LOSER, BABY:

Is it possible that the American people have internalized all the abuse that Donald Trump has been hurling at his opponents during his campaign appearances? Because at a time when the leading presidential candidate for one of the major U.S. political parties regularly refers to people - including voters - as stupid, and labels his many detractors "losers," a new Pew Research poll suggests that an increasing number of Americans seem to believe it about themselves and their fellow citizens.

In a survey released today based on more than 6,000 interviews conducted between August and early October, researchers found that Americans of almost all political persuasions believe that they lose more political battles than they win. It also found that Americans' confidence in the public's ability to make good decisions about politics has plummeted in the past several years. [...]

Another interesting finding is that people on both sides of the Democratic-Republican divide believe that their "side" loses more political battles than they win. All told, 64 percent of respondents said they perceive their side as typically losing, while only 25 percent believe they usually win. [...]

The Pew researchers also asked respondents how much "trust and confidence" they have in the "political wisdom of the American people." The results weren't pretty, and show a dramatic decline in recent years among those who have a "very great deal" or a "good deal" of trust and confidence in their fellow citizens' political decision making.

As recently as 2007, solid majorities of Republicans (61 percent) and Democrats (57 percent) reported that they had either a very great deal or a good deal of trust in the American public's political wisdom. In this most recent survey, that fell to 37 percent among Republicans and 36 percent among Democrats. Independents, perhaps unsurprisingly, have long had a lower opinion of their fellow votes than members of the two major parties, but even in 2007, 50 percent of them expressed confidence in the electorate's judgment. That number has fallen by more than half, to 23 percent.

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