
<p>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. ; ;</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>Small business 68 -2</p>



<p>Military 64 -5</p>



<p>Police 45 -6</p>



<p>Healthcare 38 -6</p>



<p>Church 31 -6</p>



<p>public schools 28 -4</p>



<p>Unions 28 &#8212;</p>



<p>Banking 27 -6</p>



<p>Tech co. 26 -3</p>



<p>Supreme Court 25 -11</p>



<p>Presidency 23 -15</p>



<p>Newspapers 16 -5</p>



<p>Criminal Justice 14 -6</p>



<p>Big business 14 -4</p>



<p>TV News 11 -5</p>



<p>Congress  ; 7 -5</p>



<p>So, what can we divine from these figures and trends?</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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 <strong>directly</strong> remedied by an election – and therefore is not as important in driving votes as are the Congress and the presidency. ; ;</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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 &#8212; and slightly more trusted than the person making those nominations.</p>



<p>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?</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



<p>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.</p>



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



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

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