Pew Research Center’s latest poll confirms what has been known for a long time: Trust in government is low. Really low. “Just 20% say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time,” the pollsters found, although when asked about specific government functions (e.g., responding to natural disasters, preventing terrorist attacks), approval soars to nearly 70 percent. Democrats’ trust level is low (29 percent), but not as low as Republicans’ (9 percent). …
At the same time, the public still says government has a significant role to play: “There is a widespread belief that [the federal government] does too little on issues affecting many of the groups asked about, including middle-income people (69%), those with lower incomes (66%) and retired people (65%).” Moreover, more than 60 percent say government should have a major role in a long list of policy arenas. …
So the public doesn’t trust the government to do the right thing most of the time, but it still wants the government to do lots of things? This wouldn’t be the first time Americans express contradictory sentiments. How can one make sense of all this? CONTINUED
Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
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