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Author Topic: Could the erosion of trust in government be at an end? -Daniel W. Drezner  (Read 603 times)

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Offline Idaho_Cowboy

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Could the erosion of trust in government be at an end? -Daniel W. Drezner
« on: September 20, 2016, 08:44:39 pm »
Could the erosion of trust in government be at an end?
By Daniel W. Drezner The Washington Post
Published Sept. 20, 2016
Read more at http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0916/drezner092016.php3#fbKR5uMbpRomwxUw.99

One of my running themes in recent years has been Americans' erosion of trust in authority and what that means for the body politic: its effect on perceptions of the Supreme Court, the rise of conspiracy theories, the emergence of a post-truth political era and the overall decay of American democracy. The polling data, particularly from Gallup, is pretty clear about the trend lines. Compared to 20 or 50 years ago, the only government or nongovernmental institution that has seen an unambiguous increase in trust has been the military.

In the post-9/11 era (with a brief exception after the 2008 crisis), the only direction in which trust in institutions has gone has been down. So Monday's new numbers from Gallup are interesting:


"Americans express as much or slightly more confidence in each of the three branches of the federal government than they did in 2014 and 2015, when their confidence fell to record or near-record lows. Public confidence in the judicial branch has recovered to 61% after slipping to 53% in 2015. Meanwhile, since 2014, confidence in the executive branch has climbed eight percentage points to 51%, and confidence in the legislative branch has improved seven points to 35%."


Now this could just be a dead cat bounce. That said, it does correspond to other polling suggesting that Americans have come around to the idea that America is already great. So, could this be a reversal of a longstanding secular increase in distrust?...
Read more at http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0916/drezner092016.php3#fbKR5uMbpRomwxUw.99
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Offline INVAR

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Re: Could the erosion of trust in government be at an end? -Daniel W. Drezner
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2016, 08:52:57 pm »
Every single institution has been corrupted beyond redemption.

A people and it's government removed from the foundational and biblical principles that established it, are not to be trusted…at all.
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...Obsta principiis—Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers and destroyers press upon them so fast that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon [the] American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour." - John Adams, February 6, 1775

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Could the erosion of trust in government be at an end? -Daniel W. Drezner
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2016, 10:15:36 pm »
Until or unless the American state (we have a State, not a government, and have had it
for a very long time) is returned to nothing but a properly construed government that
upholds freedom, defends individual rights and sovereignty, and knows
its sole legitimate business is staying the hell out of your business, my business,
every citizen's business, until or unless one citizen would obstruct or abrogate
another citizen's equivalent rights, I trust the nation's largest organised crime family
about as far as I can throw it.
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Offline InHeavenThereIsNoBeer

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Re: Could the erosion of trust in government be at an end? -Daniel W. Drezner
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2016, 10:24:20 pm »
Interesting numbers.  For example "confidence in" the legislative branch is greater than 1 in 3, whereas last time I look "approval" of the legislative branch was around 1 in 10.  Not sure what to make of that.
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Could the erosion of trust in government be at an end? -Daniel W. Drezner
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2016, 07:28:17 am »
Like the mountain ranges of North Dakota, there just isn't a heck of a lot left to erode away.
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Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis
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