Trust in Politics and Government at Historic Lows - Horowitz
Rób Horowitz, MINDSETTER™
Trust in Politics and Government at Historic Lows - Horowitz
Our distrust in our government and our politics is at historic lows. In fact, more than 6-in-10 Americans say they have “not too much or no confidence at all in the future of the U.S. political system.” Tellingly, a majority are either unable or unwilling to name even one strong point of the political system as it operates currently. These are among the findings of a comprehensive new Pew Research Center report.
While trust in the federal government has been low over the past twenty years or so, hovering around 20% according to Pew, and in decline since the early 1970s, it is now at an all-time low. Only 16% of Americans now “say they trust the federal government always or most of the time.” Additionally, for the first time in more than 30 years, since impressions of the Supreme Court have been regularly measured, more Americans have an unfavorable view than a favorable view of this bedrock institution.
People’s reactions to today’s politics are highly negative. About 2-in-3 Americans, for instance, “say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics.” Similarly, more than half “always or often feel angry.” In contrast, only 1-in-10 “say they always or often feel hopeful about politics.” About 8-in-10 Americans describe politics negatively when asked to express their feelings about it in a few words with “divisive” and “corrupt” most frequently mentioned, according to the Pew report.
One of the main drivers of this negativity and distrust is the high degree of partisan polarization in today’s politics. More than 1-in-5 Americans say partisan polarization or lack of partisan cooperation is the biggest problem with the political system, when asked to put it in their own words. Along the same lines, “more than eight-in-ten Americans (86%) say the following is a good description of politics: Republicans and Democrats are more focused on fighting each other than on solving problems,” documents Pew.
In related findings, more than 8-in-10 Americans (84%) believe “political debate has become less respectful over the past several years.” And a similar percentage of Americans, nearly 8-in-10 (78%), say “political debate has become less fact-based over the past several years.”
It is hard to see any of these troubling perceptions improving markedly between now and the 2024 presidential election. The toxic combination of a substantial majority of Americans being dissatisfied with having the two likeliest major party candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, being their main options; the unfolding serious legal cases facing the former president; the marked dysfunction of the House Republicans, which has put us on the brink of a government shutdown; and the continuing of the sharply combative, negative and too often fact-free political discourse is not likely to bring renewed faith in our politics and government.
But, of course, the trends that had led to our strong dissatisfaction with the state of our politics and government are long-term. In other words, the problems with how our democracy is functioning were not created overnight and will not be overcome overnight. I will discuss the solutions in a future column.