American Public Troubled by ‘Deep State’

A Monmouth University (NJ) poll (March 2018) found that a majority of the American public believe that the U.S. government engages in widespread monitoring of its own citizens and worry that the U.S. government could be invading their own privacy. Fully 8-in-10 believe that the U.S. government currently monitors or spies on the activities of American citizens, including a majority (53%) who say this activity is widespread and another 29% who say such monitoring happens but is not widespread.

This is not a new concern, according to a 2015 Gallup Poll, 75% of Americans see widespread corruption in their government (Gallup 2015). It is not just a belief that the government is corrupt, but an actual fear of this corruption by the majority of Americans that raises the greatest concern.

According to the Chapman University Survey of American Fears: "Of the 89 potential fears the survey asked about, the one that the highest share of Americans said they were either "afraid" or "very afraid" of was federal government corruption. It was also the only fear that a majority of Americans said they shared." (Rampell 2015) The Pew Research Center conducted a study of public trust in government between 1958 and 2017 and found that American’s trust of their government was at a near all-time low in 2017. Only 18% of Americans today say they can trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (3%) or “most of the time” (15%) (Pew Research Center 2017).

Earlier this month (March 2018) the Associated Press wrote that the federal government censored, withheld or said it couldn't find records sought by citizens, journalists and others more often last year than at any point in the past decade; yet in more than one-in-three cases, the government reversed itself when challenged and acknowledged that it had improperly tried to withhold that it should have released in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request.

According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer America is now home to the least-trusting informed public of the 28 countries that the firm surveyed, right below South Africa. Distrust is growing most among younger, high-income Americans.

The results of these polls should concern us. The strength of our government relies on public faith that it is protecting our rights and freedoms. Yet our faith in government is not particularly robust at the moment.

Distrust of government is focused on the Federal government, and doesn't necessarily apply to other levels of government. For example, overall confidence in the police has risen slightly in the past two years, with 57% of Americans now saying they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in law enforcement -- matching the overall average for the 25-year Gallup trend.

 

The Gallup study also showed that trust in the police was divided along political lines. 73% of Republicans expressed trust in the police, but this same level of trust in the police was only expressed by 45% of Democrats.

 

While overall trust in the police was at 57%, overall trust in the criminal justice system itself was only 28% in 2017, and this lack of trust was generally the same regardless of political affiliation (Republicans 29% / Democrats 27%). 

 

On the surface, Americans' confidence in the police appears strong and steady when compared with other U.S. institutions. In the 25 years Gallup has measured it, the percentage having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence has never varied by more than seven percentage points from the average of 57%. Confidence in the police has exceeded the average for all institutions by at least 10 points every year since the question was first asked in 1993.

 

A closer look, however, reveals a troubling loss of confidence among key groups in U.S. society. Police already must deal with low levels of trust among blacks, and a similar situation may be occurring among Hispanics. The lack of confidence among younger Americans could presage a growing loss of respect for police in the future. The continuing drop in confidence among liberals is already producing political repercussions.

 

Beyond those specific possible consequences, the loss of confidence among these groups creates yet another gap between young and old, whites and Hispanics, and conservatives and liberals, marking how divided the nation has become.

 

 

Overall, U.S. adults say they have the most confidence in the military, as has typically been the case since the mid-1980s, with 72% of Americans expressing a great deal of trust in our armed forces.