Americans do not trust the great institutions  (Part 1 of 2)

The Gallup polling organization has just released is annual “trust” poll.  Basically, it asks the public to rate their confidence in various American institutions in the public and private sectors.  

It should come as no surprise that the current regard with which the people hold most of these institutions is at the lowest level ever recorded.  Here is a rundown of Gallup’s findings in the 2022 survey with the drop from 2021 – and everyone dropped except organized labor, which stayed the same.

Small business 68 -2

Military 64 -5

Police 45 -6

Healthcare 38 -6

Church 31 -6

public schools 28 -4

Unions 28 —

Banking 27 -6

Tech co. 26 -3

Supreme Court 25 -11

Presidency 23 -15

Newspapers 16 -5

Criminal Justice 14 -6

Big business 14 -4

TV News 11 -5

Congress   7 -5

So, what can we divine from these figures and trends?

First of all, the fact that they all have dropped except one – and none gained – it is fair to say that the people of America are generally unhappy.  That explains why other polls show that more than 90 percent of the people believe America is going in the wrong direction.

The two most notable losers in terms of public trust are the Supreme Court and the presidency.  And the latter may explain why President Biden’s favorability rating has plummeted to the mid-30 percentiles.

The numbers tend to suggest that the public dissatisfaction is directed more at the progressive community than the conservative side of the philosophic divide. The three most popular issues – small business, military, and police – tend to be associated with the conservative side of the ledger.  And small businesses and the military are the only two institutions that claim the trust of a majority of the people.

At the bottom of the scales, we find more progressive subjects.  Democrats currently control both houses of Congress and the presidency.  Congress is at the very bottom of the list – and the presidency is the biggest year-to-year loser.

People get most of their current events information from the news media, which generally leans left.  Four-out-of-five distrust the newspapers – and almost 9-out-of-ten distrust the TV news networks.

If you consider the meaning for future elections, the presidency and the Congress are subject to the vote of the people – and the numbers seem to suggest that the people are not happy with those institutions being in the hands of Democrats.  That may be why most polls and pundits predict GOP victories in the 2022 midterms.

The only indication of distrust in a conservative institution is the 11-point drop in the Supreme Court.  It is noteworthy, however, that decline in trust for the Supreme Court cannot be directly remedied by an election – and therefore is not as important in driving votes as are the Congress and the presidency.  

Most analyses show that voters on both sides do not make a theoretical future Supreme Court appointment a major factor in their election decisions. It may be “a” consideration, but not “the” consideration.

And even at this low point, the Supreme Court is trusted by three times more voters than is the Congress that passes judgment on Supreme Court nominees — and slightly more trusted than the person making those nominations.

The fundamental question is: Should the public trust these institutions – especially those on the low end of the scale?  Is it important to a civil society that the public trusts the political class which is currently at the bottom of the scale?

In many ways, the Founders believed that trusting the government would be a mistake.  In fact, the Constitution warns us that we have inalienable rights that can only be taken away by Government.  We have been admonished to maintain “eternal vigilance” against an increasingly powerful central government.  That is inbred in the traditional American culture.

The political question is which government we should distrust most.  The Democrat (progressive) vision favors a powerful regulatory central government based on an elitist establishment ruling class.  The Republican (conservative) is for a limited central government over which we the people exert the greatest influence.

The Gallup survey strongly suggests that when given a choice, the people trust Republican (conservative) government more – but not too much in that case either.  The power in America currently resides with the left – in government, media, and education – and it seems the people are not happy with that.

(Part 2 will deal with many of these same issues with a closer look at the partisan split.)

So, there ‘tis.