… As the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll released Friday showed, few Americans are looking to the pinnacle of either government or business for solutions. When asked whether an array of large institutions are mostly helping or mostly hurting the country as it tries to address its major challenges, more people said that large corporations, the federal government, political parties, and corporate CEOs were hurting rather than helping.
This collapse of confidence in society’s leadership class has contributed to the volatility that has prevented either party from establishing a durable electoral advantage since the 1990s. But the disillusionment with those at the top is also fueling a more positive dynamic: It is encouraging more individuals and institutions to confront at a local level problems that earlier generations might have waited for national leadership to tackle. CONT.
Ron Brownstein, National Journal