Open Thread: Trust in Federal Government At All Time Low
According to a new national survey released this morning by CNN/ORC International, the public's trust in the federal government is at an all-time low. Only 15% of Americans say they trust the federal government to mostly or always do what is right, down 10% from September 2010. Additionally, 77% of those surveyed say they trust the federal government to act correctly some of the time, while 8% said they never trust the government to do what's right.
What do you think this drastic shift in distrust of the government will mean for 2012 Congressional elections? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
According to CNN's report on the survey:
The survey was conducted Friday through Sunday, during the congressional standoff between Democrats and Republicans over disaster relief funding threatened to possibly force a federal government shutdown. An agreement preventing a government shutdown was reached late Monday night.
The poll indicates a partisan divide when it comes to trust.
"Not surprisingly, Democrats are more likely to trust the federal government than Republicans, but even among Democrats, more than two-thirds say they rarely trust the government," adds Holland.
Do you think the general distrust in the government could mean another sweep of victories for Tea Party candidates in 2012? Do you think Republicans could win control of both the House and Senate?
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Comments
The basics:
Submitted by almostacowboy on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:06am.
1. Ham is not a gift.
2. A towel is not a hat.
3. The government is not your friend.
The basic rules of life as I explained them to my daughter when she was in 4th grade. She's now 21. :-)
Corruption in Government
Submitted by harris65 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 3:47pm.
The reason nobody trusts our government is because of its corruption and fraud--it is bipartisan and systemic. There is another story in Texas about a Dallas business owner, who was involved in a civil dispute and paid millions of dollars to lawyers, and when he objected to their fees, they had a “friendly” judge seize all of his property, without any notice or hearing, and essentially ordered him to be an involuntary servant to the lawyers. The business owner has been under this "servant" order for 10 months.
http://www.lawinjustice.com has an explanation of this really disturbing case.. The frequency of instances like these seems to be increasing exponentially even though they get little media attention
Not to mention...
Submitted by almostacowboy on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 4:47pm.
all the "eminent domain" cases.
cowboy... you meant...
Submitted by USMC8411 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:03pm.
IMMINENT DOMAIN, right? Or are you smarter than a Supreme Court Justice?
Update: For added nuance, bear in mind that Sotomayor herself is famously a stickler for proper usage in lawyer’s briefs, once writing, “each time I see a split infinitive, an inconsistent tense structure or the unnecessary use of the passive voice, I blister.” The rest of the excellent article here:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/15/good-news-sotomayor-confuses-emine...
She blisters... imminently!
We're ruled by an anusocracy.
Submitted by lgeubank on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:08am.
The whole federal government is filled with asshats.
sweep of victories?
Submitted by Agnostic on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:18am.
The poll means nothing except perhaps more people are paying attention!
Funny thing though is most
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:25am.
Funny thing though is most people believe in the representatives that they elected. So all this proves is politics is personal. People always believe its the other guy causing the problems and their guy is OK, he has warts but is OK. This is basic human nature, gathering in groups and knowing your group is the best.
You are correct Dan, however...
Submitted by USMC8411 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:08pm.
The TEA Party members that have been elected have, for once, kept their promise and they are thwarting the liberal elite and the republican establishment's efforts to maintain the status quo.
They, so far, have been the best players in the game since 2010. Scott Brown got elected first in that wave, and he really needs to go. He plays establishment games. I am of the party of NO! Period.
Why waste a good nuke? Wait till dark, engage the night vision, and open fire!
Donate to NB
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:39am.
Come on guys. This is getting embarrassing! There have got to be literally dozens of members who are not blogging from mommy's basement, but are gainfully employed, enjoying their time here at NB.
Given the years NB has been in existence, one would think $5,000 would be the 1-day goal, rather than something only half-reached after days.
Thank you, CA
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:52am.
With something north of 70,000 registered users, you'd think it would be a no brainer.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Trust in Federal Government
Submitted by jkwtrading on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:44am.
Trust in Federal Government At All Time Low
and the trust will go lower until we free ourselves from them..When Obama's numbers reflect congress, we should see the explosion.
"2012 Congressional elections?"
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:44am.
What 2012 Congressional elections? We don't need no stinking elections!
http://visiontoamerica.org/4393/democrat-governor-call-for-suspending-el...
Granted, the governor of NC is a plastic boob, but she IS a Democrat governor. The Raleigh News and Observer said that she called for suspending the Congressional elections for two years to take pressure off the members so they could get things straightened out without the pressure of getting reelected!
Can calling for suspending ALL elections, for now, be far behind, so that poor Barry can get things fixed without all this pressure on him, the poor baby?
And THAT sank like a stone
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:58am.
....so her peeps tried to walk it back, saying it was a joke.
Some joke...listen to the audio for yourselves, does that sound like she's joking? She wasn't joking, she was dead serious.
Okay, Rick....get on her case for us, would you please. Let her know she's a national embarassment.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Old Bev has a problem.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:16pm.
She has had so much botched plastic work, that she only has one expression!
I have no doubt that this was a trial balloon comment for the DNC so they could guage the support from their looney base for such an attempted coup (or as Barry would say, a COOP).
The fact that a sitting governor raised the issue is enough to give liberal talking heads cover to "seriously discuss" this actually happening.
Blonde
Submitted by ricklail on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 4:26pm.
Every time I get a chance to call our local radio talk show I usually let Gov Dumpling have it. Her latest foray is now looking into drill baby drill off the coast. She vetoed a bil that would have NC enter into a compact with SC and VA to look into drilling. She has changed her tune on that. For the last 4 years she has fougth to take over the damns on the Yadkin River owned by Alcoa. This company comes along and is going to invest in the old Alcoa plant. They want Alcoa to supply the power. Guess what, she has changed her tune on that. She vetoed dozens of bill this past session only to have them overridden. It took 5 Dems in the House to accomplish that.
Was this survey taken ...
Submitted by Fredy on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:53am.
Before or after the Obama Administration strong armed Ford to change their advertising strategy?
Now that the Federal government of Obama has shown a willingness to DIRECTLY intimidate a large private company, how long will it be before they outlaw all political speach they simply do not agree with?
Hugo Chavez is no doubt proud to see Obama's thugish tactics DESTROY the people of the USA!
My guess is that Obama's
Submitted by Gat New York on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:33pm.
My guess is that Obama's henchmen called Ford and said "you're going to have some union problems unless you take that commercial off the air."
What commercial?
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 4:00pm.
What commercial?
Dan, here it is, in a nutshell.
Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 4:28pm.
Ford apparently was running an ad saying that, unlike, GM, they didn't take government bailout money.
Word was that the Obama administration pressured them to take it off the air. And it disappeared. Much anger ensued.
However, then word came to light that the ad was just taken off after 4 week run, which is routine practice, not because of pressure.
I think most of this info was at RedState, which right now is down for refurbishment. But that's about the gist of it, from what I remember reading this AM.
UPDATE: RedState's back up, here's the LINK
At the end of one story on this, I saw an UPDATE that had the info about the 4-week rotation, but I guess it wasn't the RedState one.
DTM2
Submitted by Model850 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 4:26pm.
Likely this one.
Has there ever been a more thin-skinned president than the current poseur-in-chief?
New BHO action figure released!
Some infighting in the ME
Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:59am.
This is pretty rich. Al Qaeda called Ach-Me-in-a-dinner-jacket a 9/11 truther.
Al Qaeda in Yemen
It's ironically funny how those terrorists go after other terrorists(yes, I consider him a terrorist, he had some involvement with the Iranian Hostage situation during Carter) if they are slighted in some way. Just like liberals eating their own, those tribal idiots are the same way. Hell, they can't even decide on the government in Libya, too much squabbling.
-Jon
That's the beauty of these Shiite heads, Jon.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:57pm.
It doesn't matter if they win or lose in their war with the rest of the world. Once it is over, they go right on killing each other!
Our strategy ought to be to keep all factions of Islam well armed and have the CIA keeping all sides continually pissed off at the others, which won't be much of a job.
They can spend the NEXT 2000 years killing each other!
About every 500 years (based on history) they'll take another run at us. If we just stomp the hell out of them, it won't last long. Our problem now is, we keep wanting them to like us, so we're holding back.
To hell with 'em.
Why any sane American that truly loves freedom...
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:21pm.
...would trust government even a little bit is beyond me.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Read the Constitution
Submitted by Morganfrost on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:21pm.
The only bad news here is that 15% of the people seem to maintain implicit faith in the government. Our entire system of government is predicated on the notion that you should NOT have faith in the government-- we've got checks and balances, specific limitations on governmental power, and a set of individual rights which the government is expressly forbidden to transgress.
We need a government, and it has to have power. But woe to us if we decide that we trust it.
This is good
Submitted by Gat New York on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:38pm.
Because there is no reason to have confidence in our federal government and no reason to trust any of the elected officials. This is government of the people - not some of the people - most of the people. We need to to take control of our own government who have liberally used our money to help themselves and certain interest groups.
Murphy's law
Submitted by OldmanRick on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:44pm.
If something can go wrong, it will with disastrous results. That's what we face now after fifty years of administrations and congresses mucking things up.
Distrust of Government and Distrust of Media
Submitted by V the K on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:44pm.
And the media treats this as a problem, mainly because they have become the surrogates of the ruling class. A healthy skepticism toward Government is a good thing.
Contempt of Government
Submitted by Agnostic on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:54pm.
The distrust that people have for the government is a reflection of their growing distrust in the media. In most cases people don't have a direct relationship with the government except through media. Therefore, I would speculate that it is the internet that is causing this display of contempt. Even people reading left leaning sites see that the whole story is not being told even though they may disagree about the reasons.
This is coupled with the FOX effect. That is the Conservative position being reported on FOX has allowed the liberal media to move farther to the left because it is rationalized as balancing FOX. They are no longer subtle and more people see that they are misled about the government by the media.
Does o'bama know where Colorado is?
Submitted by ThisnThat on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:51pm.
Apparently not. But I'm sure he thinks it's somewhere -- and there's only 57 possibilities, you know.
CNN says even 3rd graders know better. http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/27/oops-white-house-fails-basic-geography-test/
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
Hilarious Rick Perry lip-reading clip.
Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:02pm.
It's gold, Jerry....GOLD!! -Kenny Banya on Seinfeld
Save a pretzel for gas jets.
Submitted by kata on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 2:00pm.
LOL. Thanks for sharing that!
Here's more Gold
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 3:19pm.
.....from MOTUS.
Hitler finds out the CBC is gonna leave their slippers on.
She rocks the house over on her site.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Religion of Peace-Sharia on display!
Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:23pm.
You know Soetoro isn't loving this piece of news to come out. Proof is that is the US State Dept refusing to comment on this. This is Sharia at work in Iran. This is one good reason why any reference to Sharia in this country needs to be dissolved and tossed out.
One interesting excerpt and this doesn't surprise me, but that's what happens when you rule by religion(cult) instead of law:
Iranian Christian Pastor sentenced to death unless he renounces Christianity
Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for apostasy last September based on religious writings by Iranian clerics, including Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite the fact that there is no offense of "apostasy" in the nation's penal code, Amnesty International reports.
A pastor in the article says Soetoro's silence is cowardly. I call it assent/approval.
-Jon
The dogs bark, the caravan moves on.
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 5:29pm.
Iran 'steals surface-to-air missiles from Libya
In the past Iran has been accused of smuggling weapons from Sudan to the Gaza Strip, where they have been used to launch attacks against Israel. In 2009 Israeli warplanes bombed an Iranian arms convoy in Sudan that was carrying weapons to Hamas militants based in Gaza.
Tons of weaponry, including thousands of shoulder-held surface-to-air missiles, has been stolen from Gaddafi's abandoned depots since his regime was overthrown by rebel forces in August..
Let's hope it will take a bit more than a battery change to operate those SAM.s.
You Didn't Build That.
Pop Quiz, pop
Submitted by Jack Bauer on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 2:34pm.
Pop Quiz, pop quizzers.
March 2012, the GOP field is down to Romney, Perry and Christie.
Who ya gonna call pop quizzers?
All of the above Mr Obama? --- How about ALL OF THE BELOW, instead.
No we need to Beat Obama with
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 4:34pm.
No we need to Beat Obama with a Cain
What Gov. Christie left open
Submitted by richb313 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 4:35pm.
Gov. Christie said he does not want to run for President but he has left open the possibility of a draft Christie movement that would shield him, and his family of Primary politics at the same time leaving him almost a year to continue governing NJ. Is this on his mind is anyones guess but I thought I would throw out the possibility.
Very timely discussion.
Submitted by drsamherman on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 5:22pm.
I have two residents and three M3's (third year medical students) on rotation. After doing morning rounds, we discuss the patients we are covering on service and review what findings the students and residents have made. As the attending physician, I supervise them while I am on this particular work schedule. One of the medical students brought up a patient she believes has acute depression linked to a sentinel event (e.g. death of spouse/loved one, loss of job, other catastrophic incident). I had already completed a SCID and found depression, though with a different form than the medical student noted. The medical student had engaged in a protracted discussion of politics with the patient, and she (student) noted that the patient has a "pathology of mistrust of government suggestive of paranoia". Digging deeper into my interactions with the patient versus her interactions, it appears that the patient is a Texas conservative who is vocal about supporting the tea party. The medical student, with the fully loaded liberal faculty indoctrination from the particular school she is attending, appeared to have found the patient's mistrust of government and tea party beliefs to be paranoiac. It is always difficult to tell a student to put their idiosyncrasies and personal beliefs away when entering into a discussion with a patient, but I related to her that mistrust is not paranoia and that any difference in political viewpoints she might have with a patient are no grounds for an accurate diagnosis. She looked shocked when I related this to her, and she retorted something to the effect that mistrust in governmental entities is a hallmark of paranoia. I asked her then to show me where in the DSM this is manifest. She lost the room when she started to thumb through her copy and a first year resident told her that she needs to shelve her opinions. Emphatically, the other students and residents said that by extension, her definition of paranoia would have deemed the founding fathers' reasoning for the American Revolution to be a collective paranoiac hallucination. I remained silent during their discussion, but surely I was not going to allow this to devolve into a "get the student" moment. I stopped the discussion and instead asked the student to prepare a brief presentation on diagnostic manifestations of paranoia based on the DSM criteria to present at our next rounds on Tuesday. I think she got the message that mistrust of government is healthy, particularly when other students who have received the same indoctrination she has rightfully rejected the liberal faculty party line. There is still some hope left.
Fascinating
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 7:42pm.
I shudder when I think of millions of children in liberal indoctrination centers.
I'm going to call step-daughter (again) and remind her about getting her butt in a pew....as the wee one is almost school aged.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
What was so surprising to me was...
Submitted by drsamherman on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 8:39pm.
...the student's inflexibility and her insistence that the definition of paranoia she heard in one particular lecture was the only definition. Paranoia is generally held to be "...an unfounded or exaggerated distrust of others, sometimes reaching delusional proportions". This is just a basic definition, and there are more dimensions that are added based on Axis I dissociative, treatable disorders versus Axis II paranoid personality disorder manifestations. I am concerned enough about the lecture content that I will be contacting the medical school tomorrow to see who delivered the lecture and how it was developed. I have had periodic discussions with other clinical faculty about the overt biases being introduced by the academic side faculty who do the majority of the lectures in the first two years of medical school--the primary didactic education the students receive. There is simply no place in medicine for this kind of nonsense, particularly coming from medical faculty who should damn well know better. Makes me wonder what else is being taught to these kids.
Consider Yourself Lucky, Sam
Submitted by stratman on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 12:27am.
I'm surprised this type of behavior is just now occurring in your presence. It was well established when I was in medical school 20 years ago. I'd bet if you had been practicing in Austin you would have experienced this behavior much sooner.
Maybe it is because most people are apprehensive in the presence of psychiatrists, minding their manners. Maybe it is your location which has resisted this mindset or your personal demeanor has prevented this behavior. Whatever the reason, thank your lucky stars you have not been treated to this idiocy for over 20 years already.
Wait until o'bama's 15-member
Submitted by ThisnThat on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 5:57am.
Wait until o'bama's 15-member panel begins to review medical cases. This panel will be fully indoctrinated. You might even lose your license to practice if this medical student exercises her freedom (I mean "Patriotic Duty") to report you. You will be brought up on charges of
If you think I'm wrong on this, you're sadly mistaken. Because this will become the norm. Look at what's going on in the world of global warming, queers, and food right now. Anyone speaking his own mind about any of these topics isn't just pestered -- in many cases, that person is treated worse than many street criminals across the land -- and certainly much worse than any illegal immigrant in this country. I never thought I'd live to see the day....
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
I wonder how the student
Submitted by GW on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 6:08am.
... would have considered mistrust of the government in 2004?
The kind of day I had
Submitted by jon_torlin on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 12:12am.
Doc,I gotta hand it to you, I enjoy reading your writings of your various topics of experiences, but this one actually made me laugh. Not in a sarcastic sense, maybe more along the lines of ironic and even acerbic, but still, it was a good laugh and made me feel better. The reasons for that are various, most notably a recent death of a co-worker(substance abuse, organ failure was result, transplant never happened, patient died peacefully) but some of the comments I had heard about the medical system just plain pissed me off.
So it's refreshing when you get to (inadvertent or not) one-up a student under your tutelage to the cold hard facts of reality and you get to relate it to the rest of us.
Thanks for that, Doc.
-Jon
I just found out that there are some Republicans at UC Berkeley!
Submitted by Denny Crane on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 10:53pm.
I think we should have some more diversity bakesales!
I love how the hypocrites don't catch the problem with their protest against the bakesale.
We Are The 53%
That's true, Denny....
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:02pm.
And they can currently be viewed at this Exhibit for a very modest fee.
Jer
The scary part of this whole
Submitted by ThisnThat on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 6:01am.
The scary part of this whole thing was the constant threat of violence -- by our non-violent leftists, of course.
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court