Living in an Age of Mistrust by Andrew I Yeo & Matthew N. Green

Author:Andrew I Yeo & Matthew N. Green [Yeo, Andrew I & Green, Matthew N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138735941
Google: V2SLAQAACAAJ
Goodreads: 34499089
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-01-15T10:43:57+00:00

Effects of Elite-Level Mistrust

This apparent decline in trust among elected officials both within and across branches of government may contribute to the public’s reduced trust in their government in at least two ways. First, it may encourage like-minded constituents to share that distrust. If your member of Congress is someone you agree with, and that person says the Speaker of the House, the president, or members of the other party cannot be trusted, why should you? One analysis found that people who dislike Congress are more likely to explain their dislike as a function of the people within it—rather than policy outcomes or how Congress works—which suggests that legislators’ public distrust of each other may play a big role in the public’s distaste for the institution.32 At a minimum, the strong partisan rhetoric lawmakers employ—whether intentionally or not—may heighten mistrust. In a 2013 poll, respondents’ most common answer to the question of what they distrusted most about government was that it was “seemingly more concerned with partisanship and infighting instead of the average person.”33 As Senator Ben Sasse (R-ND) pointedly remarked in his 2015 maiden floor speech, Socrates believed it was “dishonorable” to make poor arguments or misrepresent your opponent’s claims,

yet here on this floor we regularly devolve into a kind of bizarre politician speech. We hear the robotic recitation of talking points. Well, guess what? Normal people don’t talk like this. They don’t like that we do, and more important than whether or not they like us, they don’t trust their government because we do.34

Second, by hindering legislative cooperation, declining trust both within and across branches may reduce the effectiveness of government, create policy deadlock, increase legislative obstruction, and thereby contribute to citizens’ low view of their government and its leaders. According to one study, just over a quarter of individuals unhappy with the legislative process of Congress felt that way because legislators were unwilling to work with each other or with the president, while a recent survey found that over 70 percent of people who disapproved of Congress felt that way either because of Congress’s “general ineffectiveness” or “obstructionism,” including “fighting against Obama.”35 As previously noted, House Speaker Boehner had doubts about the trustworthiness of Obama as Congress attempted to negotiate with the White House over the federal budget in mid-2011, and as a default on the federal debt loomed, “Obama stepped back from direct negotiations with Republicans” in the House while Boehner at one point stopped returning the president’s phone calls. An agreement was reached only because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “concerned that other Democrats, especially Obama, would prove to be less trustworthy bargaining partners,” negotiated instead with Vice President Joe Biden, someone with whom McConnell believed he could trust based on “their long-term relationship across partisan lines.” But the last-minute agreement, reached amid a panoply of news stories about the global economic calamity that would ensue without it, may have nonetheless weakened voters’ trust in the federal government. It may be no coincidence that

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