Do you trust the Government?
Posted by mminnick 7 years, 5 months ago to Government
Some polls indicate that only 3 in 10 Americans trust the government. Personally I'm surprised it is that high. I trust the military and the police forces of the staes and government. A little suspiouces of the FBI now, at least it's leadership.
The rest of government, I don't trust at all. Not one bit.
How do you feel? Whom do you trust?
The rest of government, I don't trust at all. Not one bit.
How do you feel? Whom do you trust?
In my opinion, this alone is the reason government must be limited to an absolute minimum.
See here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/5392/trust...
(Scroll down to University of Michigan Election Survey)
This NPR story cites a Pew report on previous surveys.
http://www.npr.org/2015/11/23/4570637...
Scroll to the chart that shows a fall from 80% in 1968 to 20% in 2015.
The Atlantic did pinpoint a moment of renewed patriotism in the wake of 9/11:
The only time since 1975 that government trust broke 50% was in the months following 9/11. After the tumultuous assassinations of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, the resignation of President Nixon, and the stagflation of the late 1970s, public trust fell from 80% in 1966 to about 25% in 1981. Since then it's only peaked over 50% once, after 9/11.
here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/a...
When my wife and I were in school together (c. 2008), she was majoring in computer security and I was in criminal justice. We had a CJ class together in "Evidence and Procedure." It took some doing, but the instructor, a local judge, got us all to "call and response" to his query:
Why do we have a First Amendment?
Because we don't trust the government!
...
Why do we have a Seventh Amendment?
Because we don't trust the government!
...
It is pretty much a fundamental of American political theory that the Constitution has separation of powers and checks and balances because we never really trusted the government. I think that the idyllic Leave-it-Beaver-ism of the late 1950s and early 1960s was an anomaly that brought reflected approval to the government.
Trust is earned. Here too they have been running a deficit for years.
"I love my country, but I fear my government." Mark Scott.
Respectfully,
O.A.
I have seen nothing since then to change my opinion.