How This App Is Making Civic Involvement Profitable Most Americans agree that government is broken. But only a few brave entrepreneurs have tried to fix it -- and their efforts rarely go well. Brigade's experienced leaders think they can do better.

AMERICANS ARE PISSED.

Months out from the 2016 United States general election, voter discontent has reached a fever pitch: 72 percent say their elected officials can't be trusted, per a Washington Post / ABC News poll, and two-thirds believe the nation's political system is dysfunctional. In fact, 21 percent of people want the eventual president-elect to tear down the various levers of government and start over from scratch.

Many Americans express this anger on Twitter. Some start brawls at campaign rallies. A few, well, are running for president. But most people simply unplug. Voter turnout in the U.S. ranks among the worst in the industrialized world: Just 42 percent of eligible Americans voted in the 2014 midterm elections, the lowest level since the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking voter activity in 1978. In the coming presidential election, only 41.2 percent of registered voters aged 18 to 24 are expected to participate, according to Tufts University research.