I'm looking at a graph of the trust of the American People of the government. It starts off about 1960 with about 70% trust. Then it goes up from there to about the high 70s by 1965 and then it drops and drops and drops to about 39% in 1980. There are several causes that created this mistrust of the American people. First the Assassination of Kennedy, then the Assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. At that point almost all people believed either J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI or someone else in government had something to do with all this. So, the needle on the graph keeps on dropping all the way to 1980 which was the low of this drop from the high 70s around 1965 to around 39% in 1980. Then it goes up but only a little when Reagan come in to maybe 50% once again and then starts dropping. There is a sudden spike up around 1992 when Clinton came in only to drop to another low of about 20 to 25% when he and Gingrich shut the government down. Then by about 2005 it spiked up again to about 50 % around 2005 only to go completely into the crapper now to 19% ever since this time.
So, possibly this time trust in government may be gone for good. Because this has been a 50 year drop now almost consistently downwards. except during the first part of the Reagan administration and the first part of the Clinton Administration and a little spike up about 2005.
It is no wonder that partisanship is rearing it's head with trust so low in government. However, the U.S. usually does best when it has an enemy. However, with nuclear arms in place all over the world having an enemy now likely just means the end of the world for all life upon it.
Source: CNN Fareed Zacharia Sunday Morning december 1st 2013.
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