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Poll: 1 In 5 Americans Trusts The Government

Updated November 24, 20151:09 AM ET

Only 19 percent of Americans — about 1 in 5 — say they trust the government "always or most of the time," according to a study released by the Pew Research Center on Monday. Yet clear majorities also favor the government taking "a major role" in fighting terrorism, responding to natural disasters, keeping food and drugs safe, protecting the environment, strengthening the economy and improving education.

Despite this desire for government services, Americans are clearly dissatisfied with the level of service they feel they receive. Three out of four, 74 percent, say public officials put their own interests ahead of the nation's. And a majority, 55 percent, say ordinary Americans would "do a better job of solving problems" than the people whose job it is to do so.

Trust in government appears to have been higher half a century ago, at a time when the Cold War may have had more of a rallying effect on public opinion — along with the space program and high employment and general prosperity. A similar survey in 1964 found 77 percent of Americans trusted the government either always or most of the time.

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Confidence in government has clearly suffered over the ensuing decades, with Vietnam, Watergate, energy crises, various economic troubles, partisan gridlock in Washington and the recent frustrations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that is not to mention the myriad stories of administrative breakdowns, personnel problems and computer hacking.

The trust level generally trended downward after the mid-1960s in the National Election Study, and in polls by Gallup, the New York Times and other news organizations, descending below 30 percent for the first time in the late 1970s. The trust level percentage rose into the 40s at times during the middle part of Ronald Reagan's presidency, declined through most of George H.W. Bush's presidency and fell all the way to 20 percent during the second year of Bill Clinton's time in the White House. Thereafter, however, an improving economy helped the trust level recover again.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the trust level briefly got over 50 percent again. But it fell rapidly thereafter through the George W. Bush years and slipped below 20 percent during the presidency of Barack Obama. In 2011, the moving average of major polls including the Pew Research Poll showed trust at just 17 percent.

People trust their own parties more

In general, trust levels among Democrats have been higher when Democrats are in the White House, while Republicans have expressed more trust when Republicans were president. Four out of 5 Republicans (and Republican-leaning independents) told Pew they prefer a smaller government with fewer services, while only 3 out of 10 said so among Democrats and Democratic leaners.

The Pew report is based on more than 6,000 interviews conducted in all 50 states between Aug. 27 and Oct. 4, 2015. That is a highly unusual sample in its size, which is five to 10 times larger than most of the polls often cited in the media. The Pew research also includes interviews done by cellphone, reaching a wider range of people than surveys done by landline phone or via the Internet.

More Republicans than Democrats say they're angry with the government

Republicans are nearly three times as likely as Democrats to say they are angry with the government — 32 percent vs. 12 percent. Among those who say they vote frequently and follow politics on a regular basis, the gap widens — 42 percent to 11 percent. GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson get higher favorable ratings among Republicans who say they are angry at government than they do among other Republicans.

What is more surprising is that the parties are much less divided on the desire for government to play a major role in providing various forms of security, roads and bridges, safety and disaster response. Four in 5 in both parties said the government should have a major role in managing immigration. Here are more findings from the survey:

Spending limits: Big majorities in both parties said they favored some kind of spending limits in U.S. elections. Among those who called themselves conservative Republicans or Republican leaners, 68 percent supported the idea of limiting how much individuals and organizations can spend.

Safety nets: On issues of the social safety net, however, the partisan divide reappears. Some 72 percent of the Democrats and their leaners saw a major role for the government in lifting people out of poverty; only about a third of Republicans did. The same gap appeared on the question of government ensuring access to quality health care.

Government reform: The survey found almost 60 percent of Americans think their government needs "major reform," a sharp increase from the late 1990s, when less than 40 percent of those surveyed said so.

Natural disasters: Government got its best marks in the latest Pew data for its performance on natural disasters, and setting fair and safe standards in workplaces. About half the respondents in each party said the federal government did a good job on roads and on ensuring access to high-quality education.

Government agencies: Individual government agencies also sometimes did better than one might expect. More than 80 percent of respondents were positive about the performance of the U.S. Postal Service. But just 39 percent have a favorable opinion of the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs, which had almost a 70 percent positive rating in 2013.

Although the Pew study was focused on the federal government, it also found a majority, 56 percent, saying that large corporations have a negative impact on the country. A similar majority said the entertainment industry has a negative impact, and almost two-thirds, 65 percent, said the same thing about the national news media.

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/23/457063796/poll-only-1-in-5-americans-say-they-trust-the-government

http://www.people-press.org/2015/11/23/public-trust-in-government-1958-2015/

The government has simply brainwashed today's society telling Americans how to live their daily life. They lie to us and give us no freedom we supposedly have. We do not know who is behind the government or what their real intentions are. They are just trying to control citizens and they lie to media and hide behind false statements. Not only that, but the government wants to make your decisions. We as human individuals can do that ourselves. The government are monsters. They are tearing up our nation and I'm scared to see the next 10 years. To sum it up, the government is has no morals or good intentions.

Well, someone supposedly votes these people into office, at least the president (Wall St. appoints his administration, nobody else votes for that) and congress.The approval rating of congress is close to zero yet 90% of those bozos are returned on a regular basis. Strange.

How much of the electorate bothers to vote in this two-part one-party system anyway? A third? Less?

Very well said  :)
Probably this biggest factor is that most of the time people are offered the choice of a turd wrapped in a blue ribbon or a turd wrapped in a red ribbon and with so little difference between the two why bother.

Vermin Supreme running for president, still wants to give everyone a pony

by Jamie Peck / November 24, 2015

http://static.deathandtaxesmag.com/uploads/2015/11/vermin-supreme-640x411.jpg

Perennial political candidate Vermin Supreme filed papers on Friday to run for the presidential primary in New Hampshire.

In a field that includes 30 Republicans and 28 Democrats, the Maryland Democrat stands out for his unique headgear, lush, wizard-like beard, and consistently pro-pony platform. Asked about how he’d defeat terrorists, he answered “Hooves on the ground and boots on our heads!” Political Monitor reports that Mr. Supreme paid his $1,000 registration fee in $50 bills marked “not to be used for bribing politicians.”

Here’s some footage of Mr. Supreme having his guns (and his pony!) taken away over the weekend at the NH state house…all on behalf of some clown named Ben Carson:

Other policy positions Vermin espouses include going back in time to kill baby Hitler, mandatory tooth brushing for all citizens, and buying everyone a pony.

Of course, this ain’t his first rodeo; this will be the protest candidate’s seventh run for president of these United States, and he’s been using absurdist humor to agitate against bourgeois democracy and stir up protest votes since the 1980s. But with “serious” candidates for president like Ben Carson and Donald Trump getting more outlandish by the day, the Vermin message seems more relevant than ever.

For instance: Vermin’s been talking about killing baby Hitler for years, and now it’s a question that the actual candidates are seriously discussing. One can only hope they’ll start talking about a free pony program next.

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/271850/vermin-supreme-running-for-president-still-wants-to-give-everyone-a-pony/

Killing baby hitler could create new problems for the world, the results are unexpected, I don't agree with altering the past.

For instance: Vermin’s been talking about killing baby Hitler for years, and now it’s a question that the actual candidates are seriously discussing.

I thought it was a joke but no, the morons are actually discussing this. Un freakin believable. Idiocracy is already here.

Baby Hitler, Would Jeb Bush Kill Him? 'Hell Yeah'
Immortal News-Nov 21, 2015
When asked by the Huffington Post if he would go back in time and kill baby Adolf Hitler if he could, Jeb Bush was quick to respond. “Hell yeah ...

Fine: Here is which Republican candidates would murder baby Hitler
Washington Post-Nov 11, 2015
Technically, without a time machine, no one "could" kill baby Hitler. But we'll assume that the problem is simply that the Times has worse copy ...
Ben Carson Already Killed Baby Hitler, Twitter Jokes: Reaction To ...
International-International Business Times-Nov 9, 2015

This guy is crazy as a loon and then some.

https://img.fark.net/images/cache/300/A/AM/fark_AMt6rGC3UaAGIgf0W9bfvAKMnNg.png?t=tOFgYXkPiAEzqzhb9mOk1A&f=1448859600

Right-wing televangelist Pat Robertson wants grieving parents to know that it's okay if their children die, because God was just taking them before they grew up to be mass murderers.

A woman writing to Robertson on his show "The 700 Club" asked for help comforting a co-worker grieving her 3-year-old's death. Robertson suggested Tuesday that the child's death was all part of God's plan to keep us safe from a future, evil dictator.

"As far as God’s concerned, He knows the end from the beginning and He sees a little baby and that little baby could grow up to be Adolf Hitler, he could grow up to be Joseph Stalin, he could grow up to be some serial killer, or he could grow up to die of a hideous disease," he said.

"God sees all of that, and for that life to be terminated while he’s a baby, he’s going to be with God forever in Heaven, so it isn’t a bad thing," the 85-year-old founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network continued, "So how could God do that? How could a good God let that happen? Well, the good God is going to take that baby to Heaven right now, and that's isn't a bad thing."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/09/pat-robertson-hitler-baby_n_7547442.html

The American government is a Jewish gonernment.

Americans can't even go to the moon anymore... USA is in a terminal decay  :)

Well, Americans seem to trust the military quite well. Maybe it´ll take charge when trust in politicians and the government gets even closer to zero.

http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/lej-7o0ruuu_j8tilxtkga.png

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx

This just goes to show how much power the media wields.

I´m not so sure about that. Americans seem to trust the media even less than the government if anything.
There´s a lot of noise about the public being dumb as doornails but you can´t really glean that from these polls. Refusing to believe habitual serial-liars is a sign of intelligence in my book.

I saw this survey and I think the wording of the question is allowing them to characterize the findings in a way that can be claimed as "super compelling" to prove a political point.

"Always or most of the time" are two different things! Always means, I've never had an instance where I've not trusted the Government in any way. The stuff that happened in Bengazi would put only 20% of Americans in the position of having "always" trusted the government. The data also doesn't value the size of the trust, what's the magnitude people are considering here?

It's easy to make a wild claim with this Pew Research data...they need to define what "always" means and they should separate it from "most of the time".

With all of that said, having some distrust in the government is always a good thing, because it keeps The People evaluating the elected officials performance to support who should be elected next.

I don´t think they´re making any wild claims. If anything they´re trying to overspin the trust in the government. My read from this poll: Almost No One Trusts The Government. I think that´s reasonable.

Good post @galdur, but i have one question: why people still believe in any government? after thousands of years they didn't solve the populations problems, so for me his main structures didn't work, why we still believing on them?
there is something in people who made them forget...

Well, when you´re this low in the level of trust you´re getting close to the last holdouts I guess. A few percent will stick with what they perceive as "their team" till their dying day no matter what. Others won´t really care as long as the system seems to be functioning rationally, at least not showing signs of immediate collapse. And there are also those who don´t have any clue and believe that everything is swell. One to two percent are then making out like bandits especially since they´re funding and promoting politicians that almost nobody else trusts and they love the government of course and wouldn´t have it any other way.

Shame on Americans who "worry" about internet privacy and their government. Americans have to DEMAND the government respect the Rights of the citizens.

And why should they trust their government? They've put all their trust in to them and look what they've done.

They're litterally burning their own country to the ground.

I like seeing these polls though.

its hard to trust a government who is full of promises yet nothing is done. our government is like that, just hoping
a good and qualified leader will be elected in the next election.

I think with the bail outs, obama lost some support! As for 76% of American distrusting the government, I that's 100% of Americans distrust!! The others are illegal or criminals or something else, and of course they trust the government!! Where else are they going to get treated like royalty, as uninvited guess!!

Would you buy a used car from this man?

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2015/06/obama%20phone.jpg

It isn't the average people who want war. It isn't the average people who rip other people off in a big way. It is the government that makes legal money laundering. They make the big banking money laundering systems that rip peoples' value off with inflationary money. Why trust the crooks who are robbing you blind? This is why we have Bitcoin, to try to bring value back to the people by eliminating the banking system that is authorized by the government.

:)

i always think about this three,and i think almost evry big country have this problem.

Safety nets: On issues of the social safety net, however, the partisan divide reappears. Some 72 percent of the Democrats and their leaners saw a major role for the government in lifting people out of poverty; only about a third of Republicans did. The same gap appeared on the question of government ensuring access to quality health care.

Government reform: The survey found almost 60 percent of Americans think their government needs "major reform," a sharp increase from the late 1990s, when less than 40 percent of those surveyed said so.

Natural disasters: Government got its best marks in the latest Pew data for its performance on natural disasters, and setting fair and safe standards in workplaces. About half the respondents in each party said the federal government did a good job on roads and on ensuring access to high-quality education.

lets see asian big country,Japan,Nort Korea,Indonesia,and many more,they have majority problem like that.

Obama is just a puppet for the public to see.

Knowing this, who would trust their government?

I guess this is related:

POLITICS SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Half in U.S. Continue to Say Gov't Is an Immediate Threat

by Frank Newport
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

49% say government poses immediate threat to rights, freedoms
Republicans much more likely to see government as threat
Americans give very diverse explanations for these views

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Almost half of Americans, 49%, say the federal government poses "an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens," similar to what was found in previous surveys conducted over the last five years. When this question was first asked in 2003, less than a third of Americans held this attitude.

Do you think the federal government poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens, or not?

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http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/5mugjvk_eumcoeba6pwzfg.png

The latest results are from Gallup's Sept. 9-13 Governance poll. The lower percentage of Americans agreeing in 2003 that the federal government posed an immediate threat likely reflected the more positive attitudes about government evident after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The percentage gradually increased to 44% by 2006, and then reached the 46% to 49% range in four surveys conducted since 2010.

The remarkable finding about these attitudes is how much they reflect apparent antipathy toward the party controlling the White House, rather than being a purely fundamental or fixed philosophical attitude about government.

US Federal Government "Immediate Threat"?
Across the four surveys conducted during the Republican administration of George W. Bush, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were consistently more likely than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents to say the federal government posed an immediate threat.

By contrast, across the four most recent surveys conducted during the Democratic Obama administration, the partisan gap flipped, with Republicans significantly more likely to agree.

Percentage Viewing U.S. Government as Threat, by Political Party

Republican agreement with the "immediate threat" statement has been higher during the Obama administration than was Democratic agreement during the Bush administration, thus accounting for the overall rise in agreement across all national adults.

What's Behind the Belief That the Government Is an Immediate Threat?

The current survey contains an open-ended question asking those who agree that the government is an immediate threat to explain why they feel this way. This open-ended question was asked once previously, in 2010, but not in any of the surveys conducted during the Bush administration.

Overall, Americans who agree that the government is an immediate threat tend to respond with very general complaints echoing the theme that the federal government is too big and too powerful, and that it has too many laws. They also cite nonspecific allegations that the government violates freedoms and civil liberties, and that there is too much government in people's private lives.

The most frequently mentioned specific threats involve gun control laws and violations of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, mentioned by 12% who perceive the government to be an immediate threat.

Other general complaints enunciated by smaller numbers of those who think the government poses an immediate threat include perceptions that the government is "socialist," that the government spends too much, that it picks winners and losers such as the wealthy or racial and ethnic minorities, that it is too involved in things it shouldn't be and that it violates the separation of powers.

More specific complaints -- again voiced by small numbers of those who agree with the threat statement -- focus on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the overuse of police and law enforcement, government surveillance of private citizens including emails and phone records, government involvement in gay marriage issues, overregulation of business, overtaxing, the healthcare law and immigration.

The majority of those who today believe government is an immediate threat, and who answer the open-ended question, are either Republicans or independents who lean Republican. Thus, these open-ended responses tend to reflect the views of Republican-oriented citizens. A look at the smaller number of Democrats who feel the government poses an immediate threat shows that their responses are generally similar to Republicans, with some exceptions. Democrats are somewhat less likely to mention gun control, and also less likely to mention very specific issues such as marriage, taxes, immigration, spending or the healthcare law.

Implications

The fact that almost half of Americans see the federal government as an immediate threat to their lives and freedoms may appear alarming at first, perhaps conjuring an image of Americans worrying that the government will be breaking down their doors and engaging in random arrests of private citizens.

But two findings mitigate against this type of more dramatic interpretation. First, the fact that Democrats and Republicans have flipped in their probability of holding these views when the administration changed in 2009 shows that these attitudes reflect more of a response to the president and disagreement with his policies than a fundamental feeling about the federal government in general.

Second, the explanations offered by those who hold this view reveal more traditional or political types of complaints about things the government is doing, rather than more radical beliefs about the government using power or force against its citizens.

Gallup does not have survey data extending back to the late 1780s when the Constitution was ratified and the federal government began to exercise control over the lives of its citizens. Clearly, there has been tension between the government and the people at many times in history since that point, and it may be that such tensions are a natural part of the system by which the people willingly give up power to government institutions that in turn intrude on their daily lives.

Still, the persistent finding in recent years that half of the population views the government as an immediate threat underscores the degree to which the role and power of government remains a key issue of our time. As a case in point, a question in this same survey asked Americans to name the most important problem facing the nation, and found that issues related to government were the most frequently mentioned. Plus, numerous other measures show that the people give their government some of the lowest approval and trust ratings in the measures' history.

From the people's perspective, then, a focus on the appropriate role for government should be at the forefront of the nation's continuing political discourse and should be a key point of debate in the current presidential election campaigns.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 9-13, 2015, with a random sample of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

If there were no other reasons, things like Googling "police brutality" (if you haven't been brutalized, yourself), and the fact that the JFK murder hasn't been solved, and the Iraq war for no reason because it wasn't Iraq that attacked us even if 9/11 was not an inside job, the tons of info that shows 9/11 to be an inside job, and on and on and on, including that FDR knew of the impending Japanese attack that started WW2 at least 2 weeks ahead of time, and the BLM land grabs stealing property from private ranchers, etc.

All meant to steal property from Americans, take away guns, make America part of the U.N. one-world government, and make America a land of slaves along with the rest of the world, slaves to the devil coming up from the Abyss.

Why would anyone not trust their government?

:)

Well for me I don't care so much about the government.

As long I am happy I just don't care.

And is just waste of time for me to care.

That´s nice. Why should you care about your government destroying country after country in a row of war scams, killing and maiming and displacing millions of people? Maybe you´d not give a flying fuck if all this had some close to home consequences as in some blowback to hit the U.S., some retaliatory action like 9/11.

Works for a military production factory, and gets big pay there.   :)

I doubt it. Sounds like some low life leech at best. Bottom feeder.

On second thought, you're probably right.   :)

I don´t remember the politically correct term, it´s [fill in blank] challenged something.

I think that people don't trust their governments in every country in the world, not just USA.
Before people was more naive, idealistic and governments could censure info and manipulate with people more easy.
Now, in Internet age, this is not possible anymore and more and more dirty politics tricks and corruptions are revealed.

The real question is, would all people act as violently and wickedly as the people who run the governments, if they were as shrewd as the people who run the governments?

If all people were equally wise and shrewd, there might not be any governments.

:)

The internet is making people better informed by extending our minds, AKA it's making us smarter.

There is some evidence that governments are going by the wayside. They all operate through money systems. And the biggest of these - the debt system - is practiced throughout the world. It is ready to collapse in any given moment. It almost did in 2008. The governments will go down with it, even though their citizens ask them for help in the hard financial times.

We need to strengthen Bitcoin among the peoples of the world so that we have something to fall back on when fiat flops.

:)

Government Named Top U.S. Problem For Second Straight Year

JANUARY 4, 2016

PRINCETON, N.J. -- For the second consecutive year, dissatisfaction with government edged out the economy as the problem more Americans identified as the nation's top problem in 2015. According to Gallup's monthly measure of the most important problem facing the U.S., an average of 16% of Americans in 2015 mentioned some aspect of government, including President Barack Obama, Congress or political conflict, as the country's chief problem. The economy came in second with 13% mentioning it, while unemployment and immigration tied for third at 8%. ....

http://www.gallup.com/poll/187979/government-named-top-problem-second-straight-year.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

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