Most Americans don't trust their government. A recent Gallup poll found "Americans generally express less trust in the federal government than at any point in the past decade, and trust in many federal government institutions is now lower than it was during the Watergate era." Only 43 percent of poll respondents trust President Bush and 50 percent do not trust Congress.
After Iraq, healthcare, and the economy, Americans rank lack of trust in their government as the number four problem facing the United States. Specific reasons include: "Congress not doing anything" (9 percent), "Government has wrong priorities" (8 percent), "[President] Bush is doing a poor job" (8 percent), "Corruption/scandals in government/lack of ethics" (5 percent), and "Political leaders not working together/bickering/too partisan" (3 percent). Over the past twelve months, the trust issue has gradually gained importance and now outranks immigration, education, and global climate change, among others.
67 percent of Americans say they are "dissatisfied with the way America is being governed" – the highest dissatisfaction rating in 34 years. However, there's a striking difference in level of satisfaction based upon Party affiliation: only 18 percent of Democrats and independents are satisfied, compared to 63 percent of Republicans.
What impact will this sharply divided perspective have on the outcome of the 2008 election? Will the fact that President Bush and the GOP are viewed negatively by two-thirds of Americans translate into a Democratic landslide? Or will lack of trust in the Bush Administration be mediated by the fact that many Americans aren't satisfied with the Democratically-controlled Congress, either?
Democratic strategists believe the trust issue will work in their favor. The latest poll results indicate 53 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion of Democrats compared to only 38 percent who view Republicans positively. Based upon this "favorability gap," many Democratic leaders predict a blue landslide in 2008 where Democrats will capture the White House and win big majorities in the House and Senate.
However, judging from the sentiments expressed by left-coast activists, Democratic leaders may be underestimating the extent of deep-blue discontent. Many long-time Democrats are deeply disturbed by what they feel is a betrayal of trust by some Democratic leaders: in 2006 these loyalists worked hard to ensure Democratic victories in the House and Senate believing Dems would use their new legislative power to stop the war. And they haven't.
These feelings of betrayal are not limited to the war in Iraq. In a July Gallup Poll 36 percent of respondents thought Congress should institute impeachment proceedings against the President. Most poll participants judged Bush on his conduct of the Iraq war, but a significant percentage described him as someone who lies, doesn't listen, and has no regard for the Constitution. These strong feelings about the President haven't gone away. But over the last ten months, many deep-blue activists stuffed their desire for impeachment after Democratic leaders told them, in effect, that Congress could only do one thing at a time: focus on impeachment or stop the War. They gritted their teeth and said: Okay. As long as you stop this awful war, we'll give up our call for impeachment.
But Democrats haven't stopped the war. Now, many loyalists feel their leaders played them for fools. As a result, they don't trust Congress.
The trust issue could have several different impacts on the 2008 election. It's likely to affect voter turnout: in the 2004 election, only 61 percent of eligible voters actually cast a ballot. There could be an even lower turnout in 2008, as more Americans see their vote as meaningless and complain: I don't trust politicians; there's no difference between the two Parties.
There's likely to be an impact on fundraising. Even though Republicans doggedly support President Bush, GOP fundraising lags behind that of Democrats. At the moment, Democrats have raised 50 percent more than have Republicans. If this trend continues, Dems should pick up at least four more seats in both the House and Senate.
However, the trust issue could also have a negative impact on Democratic fundraising. Many disaffected deep-blue activists threaten to change the pattern of their donations: rather than give to umbrella organizations such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) there's talk they will only fund candidates who voted to stop the war. That means for example, they would send money to Congresswoman Barbara Lee or her PAC that supports antiwar candidates. It means they would not send money to the reelection campaign of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu one of the most conservative of Democratic Senators. On the other hand, the deep-blue activists would support Congressman Tom Allen in his bid to win the Senate seat in Maine, because he is reliably anti-war.
It's clear Americans are dissatisfied with their national government and don't trust the leaders of either Party. It remains to be seen how this will affect the 2008 election, but it's an issue that's unlikely to go away.
Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and Quaker actvist. He is particularly interested in progressive morality and writes frequently on the ethical aspects of political and social issues.
This is an insightful article that should be heeded by those who continue to trust or not. One of the biggest takeaways from the article, though, is to KNOW that your vote DOES matter.
While elections occur on a particular frequency, the management of government is conducted daily. Let those that you elect know that you either approve or disapprove of their performance. But pick your criticism wisely (i.e., sometimes your representative has to compromise for the greater good of all) or else you'll be labeled as a constant complainer.
And it doesn't hurt to offer a solution to a problem or concern you raise. Who knows, the solution might be incorporated into a piece of legislation introduced by your representative.
Next week on "Dear Tom" we'll discuss "Why Dating a Republican is Good for Your Self-esteem".
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Tom Murphy (3 articles, 3 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 1545 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 10:19:50 AM
There's actually a fairly simple solution to the trust problem. It's called an election. If people would pay closer attention to the people they vote for—rather than treating politics like a football game and rooting for whomever the team puts forward—they would find they have a substantial amount of control over who serves in congress. And once a candidate is elected, the vigilance should not stop. People need to follow lawmaking, and let reps and senators know what they think about pending bills. It takes a little work, but it's the foundation of self-government.
Of course, it would help if we had a media system that supported people's efforts to self govern, rather than putting forward propaganda, infotainment, and mindless entertainment.
I think people don't really believe that we are the government. If we don't trust the government, that means we don't trust ourselves. And maybe we shouldn't, considering the people we've been electing lately. If we're going to have trust in government, then we have to work at producing a government worth trusting. It's up to us.
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nellie blogger (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 3:08:04 PM
But the fact is that 92% of Congressional members are returned to office. Gerrymandering is most responsible for this (the carving of districts to isolate Rep and Dem voters).
I expect some surprises in 2008. Dems have been VERY disappointing to those who voted them in. Since the new Democratic Congress was seated in January, congressional approval has dropped by half and it wasn't very high to begin with.
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Jim Freeman (108 articles, 42 quicklinks, 193 diaries, 364 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 6:27:54 PM
There are very few among any of the 'elected' that can be trusted. As for this administration and every single entity attached to them and those that they are attached to, none can be trusted.
Elections? What makes anyone think anything will be different this time? When is the last time we had an election that wasn't full of election fraud? (And I am tired of the parroting of "voter fraud" by so many).
We only have one Democrat running that is honest, not a member of some secret society, and that does include The Bilderbergs (Hillary for one as well as Bill), the Council on Foreign Relations (Edwards, HW Bush, Cheney, Bolton, Carter) the Trilateral Commission (B.Clinton, HW Bush Carter, Cheney, Feinstein, David Rockefeller) Skull and Bones (GW Bush, Kerry), (to name but a few).. We have One that never kisses anyones butt and that is Dennis Kucinich. He is deliberately avoided because he is a definate threat to the elites total takeover and the profiteering by so very many.
I recently read that the Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interest by seizing control of the political government of the U.S. Think about that. Don't just dismiss it as being far fetched. It isn't.
As for our so called elected they make me cringe calling themselves Americans when they obviously do not understand what a real American is, or at least should be.( or maybe they just don't care). They are so busy covering their own behinds and filling their pockets they don't have time left to actually successfully pretend any of them give a rats patoot about truth, integrity, morality and the like. Caring about the American people and the genocide that is going on here and around the globe, thanks to the good old U. S. of A. just doesn't resonate with them. They care nothing about anything that doesn't directly impact their personal cocoons.
Everything being done in OUR name no matter how atrocious. Where is the outcry on that among the general population?
How many State Governments are functioning for the good of the people? Very few I'd be inclined to say. If we can't even clean up our State Governments how the heck do we expect to clean up the Federal government?
By the way, I read today that Pelosi knew about the wire tapping shortly after Bush & Cheney first (illegally) took office. Another example of a pretend democrat.
As for poll numbers..what is the point? Opinion of a select segment proves what?
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Rae (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 219 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 5:48:13 PM
according to a Harris Poll about a month ago, Most Americans don't even KNOW their government! In fact 66% could not tell you who their senators happen to be, and the worst part ALSO asked in the poll, They are not even interested in LEARNING about their government!
so when Gallup comes up with that statement, there is some context to it that seems to have been left out...
Ciao, CZ
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steve scheetz (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 509 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 5:50:56 PM
Well clang the dinner bell. I certainly don't trust the American Government. Any government that is full of hypocrisy certainly has no claim to trust or authority. Dividing Church and State is pretty obvious, as if real Christians, don't kill on Sundays right? And everyone knows this has been going on for sometime now. I mean if you don't know the system is a stack of corruption after 230 years of it, you must be blind or ignorant. I was born in America, but I certainly am not happy being one, I certainly am not happy about lying so called leaders killing their own people so they could go to war. I left the USA. Why? I can't trust them, can't rely on them, can't be sure if I have a job tomorrow, can't be sure if they will blow up my house, kill my wife, rendition my kids, and force me to drive SUV's. Can't be sure if someone is going to shoot me in school, or rob my bank account. Can't be sure of anything and they call that freedom? Hoooooold the maynaise, one thing I can be sure of and that is they are the most corrupt and can't be trusted. It will never change. Thinking I can run for office, is a joke, because that would mean throwing out the entire system, and people don't want to do that. In America I have concluded they like the corruption, they like being lied too, they like murder and war, they like it because they never want to give up on the corrupt ideas. They merely want to adjust them, put in different corrupt guy, to do other corrupt things. America is a lost state, a floundering centipede not knowing which way to go, or what crack to fall in. Its like a rabid dog, crazed druling over an abundance of dog chow in their dog house. Thanks but no thanks.. Dogs like that should be impounded, and put to sleep.
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Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 934 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 6:58:03 PM
The American populace has purposefully been dumbed down for quite a while now. If you don't think there has been a concerted psyop on Americans, simply read about Operation Mockingbird and read about Edward Bernays, CIA psyops and cointelpro and read about the most recent addition, the Pentagon's effort to affect control of the internet.....
google, Pentagon, internet etc. for the Mike Whitney article from ICH
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richard (0 articles, 4 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 747 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 8:01:58 PM
Polls, smolls... Be very careful placing too much credibility in polls.Polls have several weaknesses
Where the polls taken: were they evenly spread between rich and poor, States, Dem, Republican, greens, indipendent or Kusinich voters, areas or respondents?
When the polls taken:what was going on in the world of the respondent at the time? i.e. was the particular or group annoyed with local party/government…Had they just had a car repossessed etc
Sample size how big was the sample: 10 respondents in each state is hardly a representative view
How were the questions worded:words and ideas mean many different things to many different people. Where the questions perceived as being nebulous or ambiguous? ( I have that problem with surveys)
Cultural biases: Consider if the respondents were part of an affected minority, an immigrant from a oppressive regime.
Then there’s the well known ‘to please factor’: Many people answer questions in a the way the people think the questioner wants to hear.
Then there’s push polling: “Do you want a candidate who will vote for better child medicine like candidate X?” a result might be 86% of those polled approved on Candidate X's stand on Child medicine. There is never a realistic option to say yes to child care and no to candidate X
Then there’s the statistical error factor ie if 8% is the result and the ‘’statistical” error factor is 3% then the real result could be 11% or as low as 5% hardly a significant number.
Note too that polls can be self fulfilling prophecies. People read them and believe maybe if the majority believe candidate X is bad they must know something I don’t so… he’s bad. This is especially true if the respondent as contacted previously for their opinion.
Finally how a person responds to a poll is not necessarily how they will vote once focused.
Generally polls are only good when taken with a bottle of Tequila a cup of salt and as an rough indication only.
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Andris (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 532 comments)
on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 7:58:24 PM
Conservatives view the world as a boundless opportunity for domination and exploitation until the end of time, which if they get their way, will come sooner rather than later. That’s what they fervently believe, but they prefer calling it spreading democratic values, with an emphasis on capitalistic values. Two very different values systems, one advocating egalitarianism, and the other “The Virtue of Greed,” has been rolled into a giant reefer, inhaled by America and confused as one and the same.
The Devil invented The Virtue of Greed.
The good cop, bad cop comedy routine perpetually performed by congressional Democrats and Republicans is wearing thin. Not many Americans are laughing now.
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rabblerowzer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments)
on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 7:46:34 AM
