Americans Hate Government, Want Government to Do More of Everything

“In 10 of the 13 areas tested in the survey, half or more say the federal government is doing a very good or somewhat good job”.

Because at a time when the leading presidential candidate for one of the major US political parties regularly refers to people – including voters – as stupid, and labels his many detractors “losers”, a new Pew Research poll suggests that an increasing number of Americans seem to believe it about themselves and their fellow citizens.

Pew said that the demographic made up more than 80 per cent of the population in 1944 and nearly 70 per cent in 1984. Republicans and Independents are equally distrustful of the federal government, with 35 and 34 percent calling it antagonistic, respectively.

Elected officials received the lowest marks for honesty with only 29 percent of respondents describing elected officials as honest, compared with 45 percent who said the same for business leaders and 69 percent who said the same about the average American. Pew poll respondents said they feel the government is run by a select set of “big interests” that look out only for themselves and not “run for the benefit of all the people”. GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson get higher favorable ratings among Republicans who say they are angry at government than they do among other Republicans.

Since the late 1990s, majorities have expressed frustration with the federal government – with one notable exception.

Eighty-one percent want government to play a big role in managing the immigration system; 76 percent want government to play a strong role in maintaining the nation’s infrastructure; 75 percent want government to protect the environment, and 74 percent say government should play a major role in strengthening the economy.

My suspicion that voting for Trump is like starting a food fight at the dinner table-more often threatened than executed-is strengthened by a CBS News poll from Iowa and New Hampshire released last weekend. Just half of young Democrats say this.

When it comes to responding to natural disasters, for example, 82 percent of Republicans and 78 percent of Democrats say the government does a good job. We’re not entirely supposed to trust our government. Maybe he won’t, but as someone who predicted that Trump would fade after the John McCain/veterans slur, his rude banter during the first debates, offensive comments about women, and then by Labor Day, Halloween, and most recently the Paris terrorism, I can’t say that his defeat of Hillary Clinton a year from now is inconceivable. Republicans, however, were more likely to believe that regular Americans are capable of solving the country’s problems, 62 percent to 49 percent. A majority of blacks (59%) – and an even larger share of Hispanics (71%) – favor a larger government with more services. A lot of them don’t care about governing.

There is little difference in the two groups of Republicans; however, there is a difference in the two groups of Democrats.

In short, Americans hate the government and want it to get smaller and also Americans agree with the rationale for virtually every major federal government program in existence.

Today respondents have become more critical in a general sense of the government.