When Americans were asked in an open ended question to name the most important problem facing the U.S. today, what was the top answer?

1. How horribly wrong was your prediction?

2. What is, according to Americans, the biggest problem facing the U.S.?

3. Explain why Americans feel that way?

4. What is a consequence of this being the way Americans feel?

5. Isn’t government supposed to fix all of the other problems on that list? If those problems on the list (immigration, race, etc.) are problems and the thing that is supposed to fix problems (government) is also the problem, who is supposed to fix these problems?

6. Is the information from the chart good news?

7. What is the connection between political polarization and the data from the poll?

8. If this same question were asked to squirrels what would their top answer be?*

9. When Americans say the government is our biggest problem, what precisely do you think they mean? For example, are they thinking specifically of Trump, Pelosi, the Department of Veterans Affairs, their postal carrier? What do you think Americans mean by Government?

10. If members of the government were asked the biggest problems in the U.S. do you think they would say, “the people”?

11. What is, according to you, the biggest problem facing the U.S.?

12. about Half of Americans hate democrats and about half of Americans hate Republicans. The government is made up of both Democrats and Republicans, no wonder everyone hates them. Explain how different these attitudes would be if instead of the divided government we currently have, we had a unity government?

13. What solution would you propose to solve the problem of government?

14. Gallup has tracked Americans' views of the nation's most important problems since 1939. The current 34% of the public citing the government as our biggest problem includes 41% of Democrats, 36% of Republicans and 27% of independents. The Democratic and Republican figures have each jumped 13 points since September, with the reading among independents rising eight points. How do you imagine the current impeachment crisis is going to impact these numbers?

15. Climate change is currently making a huge impact on our lives with worse and worse consequences in the near future. Why do you think that only 4% of Americans listed climate change as our biggest problem?

16. How satisfied are Americans with the way things are going in the U.S.?*

Visual Extension

Learning Extension

Read the Gallup report on American problems.

Action Extension

Contact your U.S. Senator and ask them to do something about the government like impeach themselves!

Squirrel Extension

Angry Squirrel Terrorizes Vermont Town

At least three people have been victims of unprovoked attacks by a gray squirrel on a street in Bennington, Vt., over the past few weeks, leaving many residents of the formerly placid southeastern Vermont town wondering if they might be next.