Americans Trust the Government Less and Less

Americans trust their
government less and less, according to
new polling from Gallup.

Overall, “trust in the three branches of the federal government
is collectively lower than at any point in the last two decades,”
with those who place a fair amount or great deal of trust in
Congress down to 28 percent. At 43 percent, trust in the
executive branch has dropped to its lowest point since Watergate.
Only the court system fares relatively well, with 61 percent saying
they trust the legislative branch.

Overall, trust has been dropping for years. Yes, there have been
a handful of spikes—around September 11^th, the war in
Iraq, and the election of Barack Obama. But each of those hopeful
moments was followed by a rapid slide. Here’s Gallup’s
graph: 

What, exactly, trust represents in a survey like this is
somewhat hard to pin down. To some extent it’s just a measure of
approval or disapproval, which is why you see a clear partisan
split on trust in the executive branch, with 83 percent of
Democrats saying they trust the executive, compared to 37 percent
of independents and 13 percent of Republicans.

But it’s also a measure of expectation. Will this institution
and its members deliver on promises made? Will they act in
accordance with the values they claim to hold? Will they make good
judgments, and will they act in ways that allow for transparency
and accountability?

Which is another way of saying it’s a measure of faith. And on
the evidence, Americans have lost a lot of faith in their
government—the elected branches in particular.

It’s easy to imagine politicians trying to address this by
promising to do everything better, to finally make it all work as
promised. That’s sort of what Barack Obama promised back in 2008,
when his big idea wasn’t any program or policy so much as a promise
to change the way Washington works. Another way of putting this is
that he was going to restore trust in the government.

But of course, despite initial hopes, that didn’t really work
out, and, in the end, that notion, and its failure, probably
contributed overall to the decline in trust: Obama promised big,
sweeping cultural changes that were never likely to pay off, and
then when they didn’t, trust fell even further. No one likes having
their hopes dashed, their expectations shattered.

Which suggests an opening for any politician who is both bold
and humble enough to try—acknowledging that there are real limits
to what government can accomplish, and promising to do fewer
things, but to do them well.