3 replies to this topic

[bobdrake12]

http://apnews.myway..../D9F64DD80.html

Poll: 4 out of 5 Americans don't trust Washington (excerpt)

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

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"The government's been lying to people for years. Politicians make promises to get elected, and when they get elected, they don't follow through," says Cindy Wanto, 57, a registered Democrat from Nemacolin, Pa., who joined several thousand for a rally in Washington on April 15 - the tax filing deadline. "There's too much government in my business. It was a problem before Obama, but he's certainly not helping fix it."

Majorities in the survey call Washington too big and too powerful, and say it's interfering too much in state and local matters. The public is split over whether the government should be responsible for dealing with critical problems or scaled back to reduce its power, presumably in favor of personal responsibility.

About half say they want a smaller government with fewer services, compared with roughly 40 percent who want a bigger government providing more. The public was evenly divided on those questions long before Obama was elected. Still, a majority supported the Obama administration exerting greater control over the economy during the recession.

What are your thoughts on the survey?

[DairyProducts]

http://apnews.myway..../D9F64DD80.html

Poll: 4 out of 5 Americans don't trust Washington (excerpt)

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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 government's been lying to people for years. Politicians make promises to get elected, and when they get elected, they don't follow through," says Cindy Wanto, 57, a registered Democrat from Nemacolin, Pa., who joined several thousand for a rally in Washington on April 15 - the tax filing deadline. "There's too much government in my business. It was a problem before Obama, but he's certainly not helping fix it."

Majorities in the survey call Washington too big and too powerful, and say it's interfering too much in state and local matters. The public is split over whether the government should be responsible for dealing with critical problems or scaled back to reduce its power, presumably in favor of personal responsibility.

About half say they want a smaller government with fewer services, compared with roughly 40 percent who want a bigger government providing more. The public was evenly divided on those questions long before Obama was elected. Still, a majority supported the Obama administration exerting greater control over the economy during the recession.

What are your thoughts on the survey?

My understanding of it is that trust in Washington has never been the same since Watergate. Bush Jr. destroyed a lot of people's trust and the right wing media/messaging machine has done a great job at demonizing Obama. A lot of people probably thought they would have a job/the country would be fixed by now because of Obama and are disappointed. People are also more aware of the influence lobbyists have.

It should also be noted that 4 out of 5 Americans are complete idiots, though this goes across the political spectrum. Kinda funny that 8 in 10 don't trust the federal government yet 40% want a bigger government.

[JLL]

How someone gets the idea that "I don't trust the government; but maybe making it bigger will fix it" is beyond me.

[EmbraceUnity]

The size of the government is not relevant. People should support or oppose policies based on what they will achieve. Any pollster who would ask such a loaded question is being disingenuous. Bigger how? A bigger population alone would mean a bigger government, even if the structure of the government stayed exactly the same.

Interestingly, David Frum had a pretty decent piece about how transparency in government seems to have actually made the government less effective. It could be more correlation than causation, but it raises some interesting points. He seems to be arguing that we should become less transparent, though I hope not. However, it seems obvious that in public people act far differently than in private. The posturing people do in public is meant for show, and has probably lead to a lot of the polarization and lack of civility lately. So if we want to get back to a functional state off affairs, we should recognize this.

We must try to find which predictably irrational human behavioral quirks are causing the corruption and gridlock. Campaign finance reform should be a top priority. Both McCain and Obama had been champions of it, and not-so-mysteriously went back on their words when it came to their own presidential campaigns. Yet, other nations have operated with public financing successfully, and there is no reason why we couldn't. This would go a huge way towards reducing the power of lobbyists and interest groups.

Airing our diry laundry constantly in the media has had some pretty negative effects as well. For some of us it is has desensitized us to corruption, and made us apathetically cynical. This poll is evidence of that.

David Brin has written a lot of great pieces on his blog about how to regain enough trust in our institutions so that we can have a functioning society. Questioning authority is essential, obviously, but the type of cynicism that we have seen recently is not rooted in reality, and as the recent financial crisis has taught us, the biggest authorities that need questioning live on Wall Street. We need to regain a sense that anything is possible. We forget that we were key players in the Allied Victory of WW2. We organized the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift. We built the Internet. We were the first nation to land on the f**kin moon, and yet nowadays people think even little things like campaign finance reform and consumer financial protections are impossible. Bullshit.

Edited by progressive, 20 April 2010 - 11:42 AM.