Loss of Trust in Government Leads to Power Swings

Americans have less faith than ever in government and politics, leading to volatility in congressional control.

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Comments

[Spencer]

One population with zero trust in government, please.

How much will that cost?

Oh, it's free?!

[JWatts]

"Oh, it's free?!"

Free, not it hasn't been free.

[JWatts]

No, it hasn't been free.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ha, what makes up the 2% who trust government to always do the right thing? Respondents who aren't taking the poll seriously?

[Almanian!]

That's Tony and his mom.

[Brian]

That percentage is entirely composed of middle school social studies teachers.

[Libertarius]

And all sundry leftoids whose premises have never grown beyond the brainwashing they received from said middle school socialism studies teachers.

[flashgordon]

I love Nick, he's become the face of libertarianism, and at some stage maybe he should turn that fame into some political clout and run for office. But I think Nick equates mistrust of government with an understanding of why free markets and limited government lead to a better life and progress for society as a whole. If people mistrust government because it doesn't give them the free health care that everyone "should" have, that's not necessarily where we want to be.

[Brian]

So, in the 1960's, people distrusted big labor more than big business?

I'm a little too young to remember that. What was that like?

[PapayaSF]

Strikes, union violence, stories about featherbedding, etc. One story I heard at the time was someone who had bought a new car (made in Detroit) and heard a funny clunking sound inside the door. After he took it back to the dealer, they took the door apart and discovered an empty beer bottle, left there by an assembly worker. It may be apocryphal, but it's the sort of story that was going around back then.

[Sevo]

"What was that like?"
Jimmy Hoffa ring a bell?

[Brian]

Ah, yes: mob ties.

See, I just needed to remember Goodfellas, and it all make sense.

[ElDuderino]

How the fuck did "Big Labor" slip under the radar? They are half the fucking reason government is so untrustworthy.

[PapayaSF]

True, but I think it may be that people don't associate government employees with "Big Labor." The term used to mean the UAW and other big industrial unions. With their decline and the rise of the SEIU, teachers' unions, etc., the term seems to have fallen into disuse.

[JEP]

Did the Dems really have control of the House for 30 years? And they even had the Senate for most of that 30 years as well.

[Winston]

Actually 40 Years. 1955-1995. In fact they had control of the House almost continuously from 1931 to 1995. The exceptions were 1947-1949 and 1953-1955.

And they had the Senate almost continuously from 1933-1995. In addition to the aforementioned years there was 1981-1987.

[PaulW]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....Senate.png

For your information!

[bellaairey]

Start working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life.
== BEST FAMILY DEAL .. ?W?W?W.W?O?R?K?4?H?O?U?R.C?O?M?

[PapayaSF]

Note the tiny sliver of "Other" that appears in 2013. Woohoo!

[Will Nonya]

So 2% of the country trust the government to almost always do what's right. I find that particularly interesting when about 1.5% of the country is directly employed by the government.

[Will Nonya]

I have to wonder what the answers to the question about the biggest threat would be if Zombies or artificial intelligence were options.

[Inda Vidjool]

This is great news! Must mean that in the next election they will vote the government out of power, right?

[Random]

But of course this doesn't translate to distrust of the two parties in charge of that government.

[MamaLiberty]

Even more, this distrust doesn't necessarily translate into understanding the most important part... that no government has any legitimate authority over people without their personal, expressed consent. The "will of the majority" is not an expression of that consent. As long as people believe in government legitimacy, no amount of "distrust" will result in anything more than another round of musical chairs.