Michael Gormley for Newsday:

The question, buried at the bottom of a routine poll, was startling: Do you think the United States will continue to be a democratic republic eight years from now?

The response was jarring: 22% of New York voters said the existence of the American democratic republic wasn’t very likely or not likely at all. Another 38% said a continued American democracy is only “somewhat likely.”

“It’s hard to believe that a decade ago nearly 1 in 4 New Yorkers would say American democracy was not likely to exist a decade later,” said Steven Greenberg, pollster for the Siena College Research Institute, which conducted the poll in January. He called it a “rather glum assessment of the nation’s future.”

But perhaps what’s most surprising is that those watching American democracy most closely aren’t surprised at all.

“The survey shows that American voters know U.S. democracy is in trouble,” said Richard L. Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California at Irvine. “We are polarized not only on substantive issues, but on our electoral process and democracy itself.”

The Siena poll showed the concern cuts across all groups statewide, including Democrats and liberals, some of whom fear a rise in fascism, to Republicans and conservatives, many of whom fear the country will become socialist.