Americans know something is deeply wrong. They're not imagining it

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Americans know something is deeply wrong. They’re not imagining it
Surveys and data confirm a country in crisis — stressed and divided, but not yet ready to give up

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published May 28, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Civil rights activist and former sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer was weary when she spoke alongside Malcolm X at a church in Harlem in December 1964. “I’ve been tired so long,” she said, “now I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

More than 60 years later, many Americans share this feeling but in a different context. More than ten years of the Age of Trump — and the great problems that birthed it — have left us full of dread and weariness. The evidence is clear: Donald Trump’s return to power is taking a deep toll on the American people’s psychological and overall health.

According to the American Psychological Association’s recent Stress in America survey, more than half of American adults report feeling stressed, isolated and lonely. Societal division and the future of the country are sources of deep anxiety for 62% and 75% of adults respectively. Younger adults are experiencing the toll in “more profound” ways, with “nearly two-thirds of those ages 18–34 (63%) and more than half of parents (53%) [saying] they have considered relocating to another country due to the state of the nation.”

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Much of the nation is in a paradoxical state. People feel emotionally unwell and exhausted because they know that something is deeply wrong with their society and politics. Their sense of normalcy has been broken. This is not Trump Derangement Syndrome — it is a healthy and normal response to an unhealthy, abnormal and dangerous reality.

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Ultimately, pro-democracy Americans will need to learn and enact what can be described as political grit — an antidote to despair that combines practical, spiritual and emotional approaches to political action. Grit must be calm, reflective and based on a sense of shared responsibility and commitment to reason and the truth. The goal: a more just present and future. The work will be long and difficult, and require collective action and political engagement. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/28/americans-know-something-is-deeply-wrong-theyre-not-imagining-it/