The Ear to the Ground Listening Project poll found that 55 percent are concerned about the “DC Swamp,” and even more, 60 percent, said that it is important “to eliminate the influence of the network of DC-centric professional bureaucrats, media, and insider elites.”
Among Trump voters, 72 percent said it is important to drain the swamp. It was 51 percent among Hillary Rodham Clinton voters and 63 percent among independents.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates and provided exclusively to Secrets, also showed the influence of President Trump’s campaign language and that his supporters — and most Republicans and conservatives — believe that he remains the most likely leader to shake Washington up.
“Trump has given them a forum for what that feeling is,” said Anne Sorock, a national political researcher and executive director of the Frontier Lab’s Ear to the Ground Listening Project. “They are connected to him as a leader,” she said.
While the poll, coming three days before the annual gathering of the “swamp” at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, was good news for Trump, it was very bad news for Republican congressional leaders because they were blamed for blocking change in Washington.
Some 46 percent, said the poll, blame the GOP. Among Trump voters, 39 percent said GOP leaders are “supporting the swamp that President Trump promised to drain.” Just 29 percent said Republicans are helping him drain it. Among Clinton voters, even more, 54 percent, blame Republicans.
For Republicans, said pollster John McLaughlin, “these are disastrous numbers.” He said that to voters “it appears that Republicans in Congress are at odds with President Trump.”
The more voters heard about the “swamp,” the more they hated it. When the “swamp” was described in greater detail, 60 percent of voters said it was important to drain it, compared to 54 percent concerned when it was only named.
Where the parties differ is on which group is the worst swamp creature and the greatest “impediment” to change. Generally lobbyists top the list, but for Trump voters the No. 1 enemy was the media, at 56 percent.
The survey also found agreement on voter concerns that freedoms are under fire and that their Washington representatives aren’t doing enough to protect those freedoms.
A concern tested in the poll, that American traditions of freedom and individual rights are being threatened by social movements, public bullying, and increasing political violence, saw agreement from 80 percent of Americans, Sorock said.
While for Trump voters and liberals the reasoning may be different, Sorock said that both sides feel that their views are “boxed out” in Washington.
“Americans are concerned that their individual rights are threatened with the rise of the often violent mass movements – and yet they say their representation doesn’t share that concern, and is even contributing to the ‘swamp’ that is boxing them out of being heard,” said Sorock.
