We read at gallup.com/poll that as of 2021, in regards to the general public’s trust in their federal government when it comes to handling international problems and domestic problems, that only 8% of the general population thought that government, of, for, and by the people was doing a “great job;” whereas, 60% of the respondents stated that their trust in their federal government was “not very much,” or “none at all.” We must recognize this very important point, which is when the mightiest nation that the world has ever known, which has had the democratic vote since its inception as a nation, over two hundred years ago, has a population in which 60% of that population doesn’t trust their own government, then that government, has on a fundamental level, failed its people. For instance, back in 1972, when the same basic question was asked, the response was that only 22% of the people felt in regards to international problems that their trust in their federal government was “not very much,” or “none at all,” and 31% felt the same, domestically. That result is somewhat puzzling, in the sense that in 1972, America was still fighting a divisive war in Vietnam, and was still dealing with the aftereffects of the seismic changes of the 1960s.
There isn’t any doubt that the Gallup poll is an accurate reflection of the feelings of the American public at the present time, for the disappointment, discord, and strife that we see so often in the civil discourse around us is clearly in evidence by our everyday observations. The majority of American citizens, are upset, about what is so occurring to them or on their behalf by their government, as well as to what isn’t being done to ameliorate such, and quite rightly they subsequently have put a significant amount of the blame for their distress upon that federal government, which is supposed to be the champion of the people, but has proven in recent times, not to be the people’s champion at all.
America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, fairness, equality, meritocracy, and the like, of which, it is obvious to the American people that this is indeed the land of plenty; but so too, it is just as obvious that the plenty that America so has, is really just in hands of the few, the connected, and the powerful; and thereby not reasonably distributed to deserving others that are just trying to have some sort of semblance of the American dream in their life, along with having the necessary confidence that their livelihood and therefore their existence is not always going to be perpetually on the razor’s edge.
One knows that a country is on the decline, when people, wistfully look at the past, as being the better days of a nation, because in those days, people had more self-respect, more assurance of job security as well as job advancement, and thereby an overall feeling that they had at least one foot, firmly planted in the abundance that America so best represents. Therefore, it so follows, that the trust of the people in regards to the government to do the right thing which has eroded in America, is a true reflection that something is fundamentally wrong; and that something has a lot to do with the fundamentals of a civil society, decaying, which we so see by virtue of an educational system that doesn’t educate very well, a housing crisis in the sense of affordability as well as the continual persistence of enclaves of poverty and neglect, the decline of the traditional family unit, as well as too often the lack of not only a fair pay for a fair day’s work, but the treatment as well of laborers as nothing much more than cogs in a relentless and uncaring profit machine.
All of this points to the continual dissatisfaction in one’s government, because that government, is the only force big enough and powerful enough to do what needs to be done to right the wrongs, which the people, unduly suffer from.