Nate Cohn

And most of the time, the answer is about the economy, jobs, cost of living, and so on, economic issues.

In this poll, for the first time, the most common answers were about our politics.

It's a diverse category of different responses people can give about our political system, right?

But it might be concern about Trump as a threat to democracy.

It might be concern about political polarization and division.

It could be concern that Democrats are going to perpetrate acts of political violence.

Very different ways that you can be concerned about the health of our democracy and our political system.

We cobble all those answers together.

You got 36 percent of the respondents to this poll listing a concern about our political system and the health of our politics as the most important problem facing the country compared to just 21 percent who listed an economic issue like the stock market or the cost of living.

Right, and it gets expressed in different ways, but no matter how you cut it, the problem is about our political system.

Now, we should say that this poll was taken right after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

So it makes sense that these concerns about the health of our politics were right on the top of mind for many voters, and it's possible that right as we head into a government shutdown, people will start thinking about something entirely differently than the risk of political violence.

That said...

This is not some isolated occurrence.

This is part of a longer-term trend towards a more divisive kind of politics in the country.

And it could also continue to get worse, even if it's also possible that it gets better.

Well, I think there's a little bit of both.

You know, there are a lot.

There are people who think that political divisions might lead to dysfunction or like the government shutdown we're about to have this week.

There are people who might think that this division could threaten the continuity of democracy in the United States.