Someone posted a poll on Twitter asking what people hated about today's politics and hundreds of responses were made. I copied as many as I could until everything else was redundant. I took what the people said, condensed the list, eliminated duplicates like the dozens of people who just wrote "money", or "Republicans", or "lies". Money has only one numbered item with 14 specifics below it. Here is the list of 64 things that voters hate about today's politics. You will probably find your top three pet peeves somewhere.
64 Things We Hate About Politics
1. Authoritarianism, from both the left and the right. Equally mean spirited, equally oppressive.
2. Character assassination
3. Creating law that doesn’t solve anything.
4. Creating laws counter to free market economics.
5. Creating unnecessary laws instead of holding people accountable with current law.
6. Disinformation campaigns
7. Divisiveness. Everything is politicized and there are no common facts. Literally, there are facts and there are alternative “facts”. My dad (R) told me “seems like we live in two different worlds”. That’s what happens when you get your news from Hannity. How it’s caused so much division and hate within families and within our country.
8. The wrong people get voted somehow to lead this great country and most know nothing of American history or how to move us forward, because they don’t understand the people
9. Failure to serve constituents vs. their own pockets.
10. Games; lies; interjecting religion; gerrymandering; vulgarity; lack of transparency.
11. Gerrymandering: Political and Racial
12. Political donations.
13. No term limits for Congress.
14. Government dividing everyone and making everything worse
15. Greed and lust for power as motivating forces instead of the desire to serve and to help.
16. Hypocrisy and sanctimony, from both the left and the right.
17. I hate that we as a nation have become so hateful toward each other that our elected officials (and in some cases volunteers) are getting death threats for helping our country.
18. Ignorance having more value than knowledge, experience or education.
19. Incompetence.
20. Inept messaging.
21. It’s only theater in our country, a game show the average American has to watch for decades as carrots are dangled and then a stick is shoved up our a**. That’s what I’ve witnessed as a Gen X’r
22. Lack of genuine collaboration.
23. Lack of leadership experience.
24. Lack of representation. I hate that the will of the people doesn’t influence our elected representatives to create policies that actually help.
25. Lack of requirements, or qualifications for office. When elections become a popularity contest among the unqualified, we're all in trouble.
26. lack of transparency.
27. Lies. So much deceit and misinformation.
28. Lies. That people are allowed to lie with no repercussions.
29. Lies. That politicians and pundits lie. They look in your face…and lie.
30. Lobbying is in the Constitution, so is protected, but allowing lobbyists to BUY POLITICIANS should be illegal.
31. Mobbing techniques used to turn Americans against each other & abandon the values this country was founded on only to advance obstructionism to gain & hold power/profit.
32. Money:
a. Dark Money that cannot be seen like NRA and foreign operators feeding millions into campaigns! Illegal and unfair!
b. Money and Citizens United - it is erasing the will of the people. Corporations are NOT people.
c. benefits from the inside knowledge politicians have (trading stocks on that info)
d. Money: SuperPacs
e. Money: getting richer while professing to be concerned for the ‘middle-class’.
f. Money: if we can remove the money from politics, we'll actually get a gov't for the people.
g. Money: PACs and politicians who do what their big donors want rather than what is in the best interest of the people they supposedly represent.
h. Money: the dark money from special interest groups who pull the strings on politicians who wouldn't have run for office if they couldn't have profited.
i. Money buying influence
j. Money: unceasing, nonstop, daily solicitations from political parties.
k. Elections need to be publicly funded.
l. Money: we have the best congress that money can buy!
m. Money: why should we have to donate and fight for the right to a fair and free voting process?
n. the money paid by lobbyists to the people who supposedly represent the rest of us
33. Nothing ever gets done that will improve my quality of life … not one thing.. congress passes law after law, I don’t get more money, or a better schools, or less traffic, or better roads, or anything to show that my taxes are being spent anywhere that matters to me..
34. Political power struggle has managed to take a nation of people who have a lot in common, find our few differences and then use fear tactics to create division amongst the citizens. We have lost sight of the fact we all want what’s best for the county, we have to compromise to find it.
35. Publicly bashing each other instead of doing it behind the chamber doors, When local election time comes around the TV is flooded with political commercials of politicians bashing each other nonstop and they never talk one bit about their views or what good they can do.
36. Religion in politics. We have 3 branches of government; your church isn’t one of them.
37. Self-interested politicians. Becoming a millionaire while doing public service isn’t public service it’s self-service! The illusion that congress works for the people!
38. So few voters understand and pay attention to politics. They simply do not understand that it’s all about policy and that it affects their lives every day.
39. Stupid voters who don’t research their candidates. Really? Who in their right mind would vote for a guy who bankrupted every company he ever opened???
40. Taking bribes for quid pro quo favors & avoid prosecution.
41. That it doesn't seem to matter who we vote for. Our political system is broken and at the end of the day "we the people" have very little say in how our government serves us.
42. That nothing ever HAPPENS! It’s all just grandstanding and showboating, but literally…. NOTHING HAPPENS.
43. That people lie. They look in your face...and lie.
44. That politicians get rich and never help the people who truly need it. They are the ones getting handouts, and they can't even understand that people need a hand UP!
45. That you don't have to be educated or have the ability to think critically to become a lawmaker - that lawmakers do not advocate for their constituents...
46. The fact that even once elected, instead of shifting to GOVERNANCE, so many officials continue to play politics
47. The hypocrisy on both sides!
48. The lack of imagination. We accomplished things like Interstate Commerce Act, SSA, New Deal, Space Program, etc. With more technology and possibilities than ever, today's @GOP, @DNC can't do squat without the approval of a handful of billionaires. Re-election bids prevent action.
49. The lie that they represent their constituents when they clearly represent their big donors.
50. The lying, the power trips, the derailment of things the citizenry supports, the division, the refusal to know when it’s time to leave, the daily mental stress of paying attention to it, the endless barrage of fundraising requests and the imbalance of what we get for our money.
51. Gerrymandered districts.
52. The ones running for any position are allowed to lie & gaslight to get elected & even more-so after elected. For some reason just stating facts, concerns & goals doesn’t get anyone elected at any level. It is the reason we are always at broke, at war & segregated.
53. The people's representatives have no accountability
54. The propaganda, lies, and disinformation used to discredit the truth.
55. The tribalism. Even if a policy is good for America the opposing party or out of power party won’t vote for it
56. The, across the board, inability and refusal to communicate transparently/honestly.
57. There's a belief with politicians they have to mask what they are saying, be ambiguous, never commit to anything, because of what the opposition might do or say. Average people see this as either hypocrisy, being disingenuous, or flip flopping.
58. They have a different set of rules. Things you or I would get arrested for doing in dc…
59. They make EVERYTHING political. Nothing is just facts. Everything turns into something political and then the other side argues against it just because the first side said it.
60. Tribalism. Even if a policy is good for America the opposing party or out of power party won’t vote for it
61. Uneven playing field. One side lies and schemes to maintain power, and everyone acts like this is normal. The other side of still refers to them as friends and colleagues. This isn't normal. They are not called out by the media.
62. Voter fraud in red states.
63. Vulgarity
64. when a Party will obstruct good policy that would help people. Sure there may be differences in how a Bill may help or hurt, but to obstruct b/c it will make the other party looks bad, not b/c the Bill is deeply flawed or problematic