America's "Great Compromiser" Henry Clay called government "the great trust," but most Americans today have little faith in Washington's ability to deal with the nation's problems.Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don't trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America's ills, the survey found.
The survey illustrates the ominous situation President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party face as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities in this fall's elections. Midterm prospects are typically tough for the party in power. Add a toxic environment like this and lots of incumbent Democrats could be out of work.
The survey found that just 22 percent of those questioned say they can trust Washington almost always or most of the time and just 19 percent say they are basically content with it. Nearly half say the government negatively affects their daily lives, a sentiment that's grown over the past dozen years.
This anti-government feeling has driven the tea party movement, reflected in fierce protests this past week.
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4 comments:
Somewhere Robert Mueller is trying to figure out how many "lone wolf anti-government extremists" that makes that he has to warn the other 20% to keep a lookout for.
If 80% don't trust the government I'd say we are in the right place.
That makes Mueller nervous.
Good.
He should be.
He should be nervous every day that his work is to protect the people not the govt (which keeps his life in tension..as it should be), because in the end THAT is what protects his career.
It is absolutely American to not trust the government. Not trusting the government is one of the main tenets this nation was founded upon.
The survey illustrates the ominous situation President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party face as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities in this fall's elections.
November should be interesting, then.
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