Natalie Kittrow

So we're not talking about a concern that was necessarily weighted to one direction or another.

It was just a general sense that our politics is broken.

That's what you're saying.

You know, when people say that they're concerned about the economy, the stakes to me at least seem pretty intuitive.

It's their livelihood, their ability to provide for their families.

With an answer that's about politics, it's just less straightforward.

And I'm wondering if you think this is an emotional reaction to just how unsettling the last few weeks and months have been or what you think the stakes are here.

And what'd they say?

No.

Middle of a pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests, lots of unsettling moments then, too.

That is a huge shift, Nate.

What do you make of that?

Right.

It's like people have felt way worse about the issues in the past, but they've still felt that our politics was fundamentally functional and that we could solve our problems.

And now they feel not great about the issues and totally pessimistic about the ability of our political system to resolve the problems we have now and the ones that will arise in the future.

They're not at the worst case scenario yet.

And yet when you think about that 31 percent that does think America may be headed toward becoming a failed state, yes, that's a minority, but it's still a lot of people.

It's a significant chunk of voters who are really at the end of their rope.

And I'm wondering if there's ever been a time when that kind of disillusionment with politics has been this high.

And the reason I ask is that something I've been thinking about is that when you talk to experts in political violence, which is something we've seen quite a bit of recently,