By Doug Pinkham
Public Affairs Council President

April 21, 2010

You may have already seen the latest survey about trust in government by Andrew Kohut and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

"By almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days," says the seminal study. Pew then goes on to describe "a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government - a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials."

The numbers are, to say the least, discouraging:

• 22% say they trust the government in Washington always or most of the time
• 25% have a favorable view of Congress
• 40% say the Obama administration is doing an excellent or good job
• 38% say the federal government has a positive impact on their day-to-day lives

But the public frustration doesn't end with Washington. State government, which was comparatively popular when Pew last conducted the study in 1997, didn't fare well either. Just 42% say their state government has a positive effect on their daily lives.

In addition, when asked about their views of other large institutions, only 22% like banks and financial institutions, 25% view large corporations positively, 31% view the national news media positively and 32% have positive views about labor unions. As blogger Andrew Sullivan noted earlier this week, the study seems to indicate that "Americans hate everyone."

The study's discussion of government distrust and midterm politics is also worth reading, especially if you're a Republican. That's because voter hostility seems likely to be an important factor in midterm voting intentions and turnout. Although the level of distrust was also high in the late 1990s, only 37% believed government needed "very major reform." Today, 53% of respondents call for major reform.

To make matters worse for Democrats, anti-government feelings will likely drive Republican and Independent turnout more than Democrat turnout. "Independents who are highly dissatisfied with government are far more committed to voting this year than are independents who are less frustrated (78% vs. 58%)," reports Pew. "Overall, independent voters slightly favor the GOP candidate in their district by a 41% to 34% margin, but those who are highly dissatisfied with government favor the Republican candidate by an overwhelming 66% to 13% margin."

Now let's look at some of the study's interesting paradoxes. Though most people have negative attitudes toward business, 58% say "the government has gone too far in regulating business and interfering with the free enterprise system." Remarkably, this is about the same percentage that held this view 12 years ago.

When it comes to regulating banks, this opinion no longer applies. More than 60% say the federal government ought to more strictly regulate the way major financial companies do business. (It is no coincidence that the White House has made financial industry regulation its major focus in the months before the mid-term elections.)

But here's the statistic that I found most surprising: Despite the recession, only 40% say it's a good idea for the government to exert more control over the economy; 51% oppose the notion. In March 2009, when the economy was teetering and we didn't know what the bottom of the recession would look like, 54% were in favor of the government exerting greater control over the economy.

The study data remind us not only that trust is fragile; it's illusive. The percentage of Americans who said they trusted the federal government "always or most of the time" reached a 30-year high right after the terrorist attacks of late 2001. At the time, Pew's Andrew Kohut told the Los Angeles Times that the spike in favorability didn't mean the public necessarily wanted a bigger federal government. "People don't like government more," he said. "They just need government more."

Author Robert Putnam, in the same 2002 article, summed up why politicians shouldn't read too much into blips of popularity:

Perhaps the White House and Congress misread the level of support for forceful economic policy-making - as well as a more activist federal government - a year ago. People tend to rally around their president when times are tough or unsettled. As concerns about further terrorist attacks died down in 2002 and 2003, public distrust in government began to return to higher levels. In the same way, people seem less comfortable with government involvement in the economy now than when the country was in the midst of an immediate crisis.

It's also possible that President Obama and Democratic leaders are victims of their own success. While economists differ on the merits of the stimulus package and TARP, most agree that aggressive federal action averted a global financial disaster. The nation's slow economic recovery has been just strong enough to take the edge off the crisis. And yet it has not been robust enough to quell the underlying anger and suspicion about government. 

Throw in a rancorous debate about healthcare, a disquieted Republican minority and the rise of the Tea Party movement, and it's no wonder that "Americans hate everyone."

Comments? Email me at http://pac.org/contact/blog.