our democracy now and how voters view our government was the latest topic for our ongoing vote 2024 TBL talk initiative this is in partnership with Marquette University's Civic dialogues program according to Gallup just 28% of Americans are satisfied with the way democracy is working in our country we asked our diverse group of Voters gathered at engine company number three to share their thoughts on that I think a lot of that is individual and plural and communal you know if I think about you know how my government is working for me what connections I have how I'm feeling how are my rights um being protected or represented that's a whole different conversation than if I'm talking about the state of Wisconsin or or the community at large or other communities that are out there um so I'm always interested in in pulling questions like that uh when it comes to just how positive my democracy is based on my personal life and then linking it to my economics or my social well-being or other things and then do I care about the rights of others that are out there and about how they're experiencing America the same way that I am maybe I do maybe I don't depending on that that question that's raised that way what concerns me is how we're reacting to our concerns about democracy because I could be a person who says I'm really concerned about democracy and I see it slipping but I think the important thing is you know what are we doing about it when I hear that percentage I think that older generation numbers would have been higher but right now the younger Generations who are becoming more vocal are so fed up with the system so it may become a a process of regression regarding having to almost tear down what has been here cuz it's just not work anymore and I think everyone needs to you you're not going to come to an agreement what democracy is but you need to be able to come to an agreement of how it can grow and what it should represent and then build on that right and I don't think right now we have a lot of people in power that can help do that and so that's where I think that percentage comes in the people with power how like who's controlling our democracy when your figure at 28% I find a little somewhat shocking um I remember a recent figure not too long ago that the overall approval rate of Congress is around 11% which when you think about is absolutely horrible um and I don't I don't know that people think about democracy so much as they do is our government working I don't think they think of in the term of democracy per se okay they're seeing the fact that Congress is a stalemate they don't seem to get anything done they're always a bottleneck they're always at each other's throats um they can't pass a budget we haven't had budget in seems like decades are always passing these uh resolutions you know um and I think people are just disgusted that with with that and I think part of the fact we've got we've got some of our Representatives have whether they be in Senate or the house they've been there 30 40 50 years our constitution wasn't set up our country wasn't set up for for the people to be professional politicians they were supposed to go there get a job done and come back and you know whatever um so I think there's a lot of unhappiness with the way way that the government's working but I don't know that people think in the terms of democracy per se I really don't I do think I agree with you um that I do think people are really frustrated with there being a stalemate in Congress I also really think that people feel like there is no way they're being represented I think that's a big thing um where they don't understand that that rep like Representatives don't really seem like someone who would actually represent your interests they they seem like people who just are career politicians who've been doing that for a long period of time who get money from people um who have a lot of money who might have way more access to them and way more um their interest might be represented way better than um every day uh everyone else in the country and I think that is it becomes more and more tangible in a way where there feels like there's not m r much R redistribution of power in the country overall it feels like very very few people hold a lot of power at least I think that's what it feels like and that doesn't feel very Democratic we will share more of this conversation and others in upcoming specials this fall right here on Milwaukee PBS