1) Congress is less popular than Richard Nixon was during Watergate, or than the banks were during the financial crisis
Sen. Michael Bennet/Washington Post
2) In the 2010 election, 0.26 percent of the population gave 68 percent of the money
3) Congress is more polarized than at any time since Reconstruction
Data from Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal
4) Many states are trying to make it harder for Americans to vote
5) Democratic and Republican voters are more polarized than ever
6) Increasingly large numbers of Democrats and Republicans view the other party as threat to the country
7) Liberals and conservatives live in very different informational worlds
8) In some states, gerrymandering is rendering the will of the electorate almost irrelevant
9) There were more filibusters between 2009 and 2010 than in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s combined
Data: US Senate
10) The amount of dark money in politics is exploding
From 40 charts that explain money in politics
11) The biggest political donors are extremely polarized
12) Trust in government is at about its lowest point in 40 years
WATCH: 'The decline of American democracy in one graph'