by Frank James
Gallup has a new survey out in which it reports that public trust in the federal government has fallen to lows reminiscent of the Watergate era. It’s a state of affairs a Gallup analyst bemoans.
PRINCETON, NJ — A high degree of public trust in elected leaders is one of the basic underpinnings of representative government. Gallup’s annual Governance survey shows that trust in the federal government has continued to decrease this year after showing noticeable signs of decline the past two years.
But maybe public distrust in elected leaders is actually not a bad thing.
Indeed, the very system the Founding Fathers created was premised on a mistrust of public officials. If that weren’t so, why would we need three branches of government that, on a good day, check and balance each other?
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s a famous passage from the Federalist, number 51, by James Madison where he writes, in ornate, 18th century prose, on this very topic. It’s the passage from which come the famous lines ” If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
Thus, it should be obvious that from the start, the American Republic was based on a healthy lack of trust in government and its officials. People credit Ronald Reagan with the saying “trust but verify,” but that notion far predates him.
So the roughly 50 percent of Americans Gallup found who don’t trust the government to properly handle foreign and domestic affairs are in the very best tradition of the Founding Fathers. The better question might be, why do all those other folks trust the government so much?
At the end of his report, the Gallup analysts writes this:
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Of course, one of the lessons of the Watergate era is that the American system of government is resilient enough that it can withstand low levels of trust in government. But trust in government is not necessarily easy to restore, and the conditions likely behind the decline in trust seem unlikely to improve substantially in the near term. To some extent, the 2008 election campaign may be the kind of fresh start the public requires to regain its trust in the federal government.
It’s that last line that really leaps off the computer screen: “… the 2008 election campaign may be the kind of fresh start the public requires to regain its trust in the federal government.”
Uhh, I don’t think so. It is more likely to be one of the nastiest races we’ve witnessed yet, especially if Sen. Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, since she is one of the most polarizing candidates in modern American political history.
It will not be the kind of race that boosts the public’s faith in its officials. Trust me on that.