by Eric Zuesse, The Duran:
The theory behind a democracy is that the public get to choose their leaders. If the theory has been adhered to — reflects the reality — then at least 50% of the public in such a country approve of their leader. Here are the actual latest polled approve-disapprove ratings of the national leaders of the U.S.-&-allied countries:
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
https://pro.morningconsult.com/trackers/global-leader-approval
issue-date 4 September 2023: https://archive.ph/wTWrz
Giorgia Meloni (Italy) 45% 50% (45% approve, 50% disapprove)
Pedro Sánchez (Spain) 44% 50%
Joe Biden (U.S.) 40% 53%
Leo Varadkar (Ireland) 39% 52%
Mateusz Morawiecki (Poland) 36% 57%
Alexander De Croo (Belgium) 35% 48%
Justin Trudeau (Canada) 35% 59%
Ulf Kristersson (Sweden) 33% 57%
Jonas Gahr Støre (Norway) 31% 60%
Rishi Sunak (U.K.) 29% 61%
Karl Nehammer (Austria) 28% 64%
Emmanuel Macron (France) 26% 68%
Olaf Scholz (Germany) 25% 70%
Mark Rutte (Netherlands) 24% 70%
Fumio Kishida (Japan) 24% 64%
Yoon Seok-youl (South Korea) 21% 73%
Petr Fiala (Czech Republic) 20% 76%
That’s 17 U.S.-&-allied countries which were scientifically sampled and polled. The 9th-ranked among them is the one in the middle, and that’s Jonas Gahr Støre (Norway) 31% 60%. Around twice as many Norwegians disapprove of their leader as approve of him. Supposedly (if it’s a democracy), he represents at least 50% of them, but instead only 31% think he does. That’s way off from being like a democracy. None of those countries is a democracy, according to this basic measure. NATO is a military alliance of dictatorships, according to this.
The U.S. Government and its allies all condemn both Russia and China (the two countries that the U.S. Government has the most wanted to conquer ever since 25 July 1945) as being dictatorships, but what are these percentages, in those countries?
Here are the figures ever since Putin came into office in Russia, right up till the latest survey, which was in August:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/.
As-of today, 4 September 2023, 80% of Russians approve of his leadership, and 16% disapprove. His lowest-ever score was in both April and May of 2020: 59% approved, to 33% who disapproved, in April, and then 59% approved, to 34% who disapproved, in May.
I’ve not found any polling-results on China’s President Xi, but two polls are relevant: On 22 August 2022, I headlined “NATO-Affiliated Poll in 53 Countries Finds Chinese the Most Think Their Country Is a Democracy” and reported that, “A poll in 53 countries by the NATO-affiliated “Alliance of Democracies” found that 83% of Chinese think that China is a democracy. That’s the highest percentage amongst all of the 53 countries surveyed.” And, the “U.S. was worse than average, and was tied at #s 40&41, out of the 53 nations, with Colombia, at 49%” — barely less than half of Americans think they live in a democracy. Furthermore: the Edelman Trust Barometer polls in 28 countries, and some of its questions are likewise relevant. On 24 March 2023, I headlined “How Nations’ Citizens Rate Their Own Government” and reported that of all 28 nations surveyed by the Edelman organization, the trust in the Government was the highest in China, at 91%, while only 39% of Americans trust their Government. Only 37% of Russians do, and Russians have distrusted their Government ever since there has been polling on that — the disparity between how Russians rate their Government versus how they rate Putin is enormous and has no parallel in any other country that I know of. Perhaps local governments are lousy in Russia. It’s a disparity that ought to be examined scientifically. But, regardless, U.S. President Biden’s saying, of Putin, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” is just like his calling Xi a “dictator” is. For Biden, with a net job-approval of -13%, to be saying such things about national leaders who have served their nations vastly better than Biden has been serving his, is hateful, closed-minded, petty, and extremely dangerous both to his own country and to all countries (since he may be heading the world into WW III); it is despicable, and clearly marks him as a leader who needs to be regime-changed as soon as possible (but not replaced by anyone in his Administration, since he has surrounded himself with individuals who are just as dangerous as he himself is). And, since Trump had even lower net-approval ratings than does Biden, the “opposition” Party is clearly no better.
If the reader disagrees with those approve-disapprove ratings by those nation’s citizenries, then I ask you: who is in a better position to rate a national leader — a person who lives there, or a person who doesn’t? Of course, your nation has its propaganda, and that foreigner’s nation has its propaganda; but which of the two of you is likelier to know what the reality is, there, regarding the situation on the ground, there? The only time when I would say that a national leader’s rating by that person’s citizenry isn’t trustworthy is when it’s a nation whose citizenry know that they’re in a war, such as George W. Bush’s numbers soared up to 90% right after he invaded — and really did wreck — Iraq entirely on the basis of lies. So, if it’s a nation that’s at war, then one must consider what those numbers were BEFORE it was at war, in order to have a realistic perspective.
