The strong momentum in the Trump and Sanders campaigns is seen largely as a reflection of ordinary people's anger at Washington and the establishment.

Americans are angry with a lot of things these days, such as the police brutality that has triggered nationwide street protests, the stagnated household incomes that have haunted the American middle class for the last 15 years, the widening gap between the rich and poor, the mounting national debt which for the first time exceeded $19 trillion on Jan 29, and the country's crumbling infrastructure and rundown roads.

Living in a country that likes to proclaim itself the greatest democracy in the world, ordinary Americans increasingly find that they are actually voiceless in influencing the politicians who are supposed to represent them, especially compared with the powerful interest groups and lobby firms.

The dysfunction in Washington, as exemplified by the fight between White House and the Capitol Hill, has become worse in recent years.

Meanwhile, Obama has broken many passionate promises he made to the American people in 2008 and 2012, such as ending the war in Afghanistan in 2014, closing the Guantanamo detention facility and providing a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Washington is viewed so negatively that when the Pew Center conducted a poll in November, it showed that just 19 percent of Americans say they trust the government always or most of the time, the lowest level in 50 years. A mere 20 percent of Americans polled said government programs are well-run.

Elected officials are now held in such disdain that 55 percent of the American public expressed the belief that "ordinary Americans" would do a better job of solving their nation's problems.

The author is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com