Just 16 percent of Americans have confidence in the federal government. No surprise.
Looking back at this polling series by the Pew Research Center, we see that public confidence in the federal government peaked at 77 percent back in 1964; as recently as 2001, confidence stood at 54 percent. No need to rehash all the reasons for the decline, but if more than four in five Americans mistrust the federal edifice, the phenomenon is bipartisan and far-reaching.
So, what should we do?
The kernel of an answer comes from a related polling series by Gallup, which finds that Americans have more confidence in local and state government. Makes sense: In a big country—population 336 million and rising quickly—culture and belief, right to left, naturally grow farther apart. So a central government premised on “one size fits all” no longer seems like a good fit.
One notable problem…
