Perceived Corruption as Legitimacy Crisis

A supermajority of Americans now say many or most elected officials are corrupt (84% overall; 75% for elected federal legislators), and independents are especially likely to raise corruption as a top problem. That perception is asymmetric by party and level of government and appears in open‑ended responses analyzed with AI, signaling it is salient beyond partisan cues. — If belief in widespread official corruption is common across the electorate, it becomes a structural legitimacy problem shaping turnout, anti‑establishment politics, and demands for institutional reform.