To some extent, the results aren’t surprising. Democrats are not only shut out of power in Washington, the party has lost hundreds of state legislative seats in recent years, a daunting reality that may have been easier for loyal liberal partisans to ignore when their party held the White House.

Not only did the party lose power, it lost it to an unpopular president, who Democratic party leaders had described as a menace and a threat during the 2016 campaign. “Disastrous,” “devastating,” “terrifying,” and “tragic” were some of the words Clinton supporters used to describe the outcome of the election in its immediate aftermath, according to a YouGov/Economist poll.

In contrast, trust in government among Republican voters has risen in the aftermath of the election, and so has confidence in the country’s future, while anger at the government has lessened. “The current share of Republicans who say they trust the government at least most of the time (28%) is considerably higher than throughout much of the Obama administration,” the Pew report notes and increased relative to October 2015. The share of Republicans who feel angry at the government has decreased since March 2016. And fifty-nine percent of Republicans now say they feel quite a lot of confidence in the future of the United States, compared to just 40 percent who said the same in 2015.

The report notes, however, that despite these trends, “GOP trust in government today remains significantly lower than it was throughout most of George W. Bush’s administration” while Republicans remain “more likely to express anger at government today than they were during the Bush administration.” As a result, levels of anger toward the government among Republicans and Democrats are roughly on par with one another.

Setting aside partisan differences, Pew finds that overall the American public’s trust in government remains near historic lows. That suggests that even if the election has restored some faith among Republicans in their confidence in the future and in their political representation, both parties may need to look for ways to regain voter trust if they want to chip away at the current level of suspicion among the American public toward government.

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