Majority of Americans distrust the government: survey
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041900117_pf.html
Monday, April 19, 2010; 12:33 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they do not trust the U.S. government to do what is right, expressing the highest level of distrust in Washington in half a century, according to a public opinion survey.
Only 22 percent of Americans say they trust the government "just about always" or "most of the time," according to the Pew Research Center survey released on Sunday.
Americans' trust in the federal government has been on a steady decline from a high of 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration in 1958, when the "trust" question was first posed in a national survey, the research center said.
Economic uncertainty, a highly partisan environment and overwhelming discontent with Congress and elected officials were all factors contributing to the current wave of public distrust, the report said.
The long, bitter debate over the healthcare law that U.S. President Barack Obama signed last month made negative feeling about government, particularly Congress, even worse, according to the report based on a series of surveys of some 5,000 people.
About 25 percent had a favorable opinion of Congress, the lowest in 25 years of surveying, and less than half (40%) said the Obama administration was doing an excellent or good job, Pew said.
Americans were found to be more frustrated than angry, with 56 percent expressing frustration with the federal government, compared with 21 percent who said they were angry.
Forty-three percent of Republicans, 50 percent of independents who lean Republican and 57 percent of those who agree with the Tea Party movement said the government presents a major threat to their personal freedom.
That compares with 18 percent of Democrats, 21 percent of independents who lean Democratic and 9 percent of those who disagree with the Tea Party movement.
The main survey of 2,505 adults was conducted March 11-21. Three other surveys of about 1,000 adults each were conducted March 18-21, April 1-5 and April 8-11. The margin of sampling error for the surveys is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
(Reporting by Joanne Allen, Editing by Vicki Allen)
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Mulers
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When the government is lieing to it's people it will all unwind eventually I'd jst like to finish by making a comparrision between the USA and the USSR
- 2 years ago
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Mulers
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Follow_me
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for good reason at that
- 2 years ago
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Follow_me
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freecrack
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well its full of human beings(fallable by nature)who posses awesome responsability and power.if we didnt mistrust them wed be insane.the system of checks and balances is coincidental our founders didnt trust the govt (themselves) either
- 2 years ago
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freecrack
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masterzip
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Gov-mint officials have the responsibility of spending our tax dollars responsibly. It should be law that they are all tested by lie detector to make sure public funds are being spent to the best interest of the population.
we are supposed to have faith and trust our gov-mint will work in their best ability.
since we all know that never happens,..they should be required to and tested against their actions. - 2 years ago
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masterzip
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Blind_Watchmaker
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Government is just like a big dick
There's a nut on the right
There's a nut on the left
Either way you still get shafted... - 2 years ago
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Blind_Watchmaker
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nanac
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The government is no better than the people that supposedly represent it..It is very difficult to trust a government, that elected Representatives place political parties, corporations, and the rich before ordinary citizens....Confidence is lost in a government, that allows elections to be stolen without any retribution..Have no secure and uniform system of voting, and refuse to modernize its antiquated voting machines..They permit government officials with political affiliation to oversee the voting process, denying millions of Americans the right to vote..Place justices on the Supreme Court that only represent a small minority of Americans..The Liberal voice is muffled and the court always lean to the Right on landmark cases.. .Americans distrust a government that lies in order to start an unnesessary war, to line the pockets of greedy war profiteers.. Americans distrust the government, because the Conserative media and Republicans purposely misinform, lie, spread propaganda, and vilify Obama and the Democratic Party to gain power..
- 2 years ago
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nanac
