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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Good news for liberty buffs: Americans don't trust the feds

A recent Public Strategies Inc./Politico poll shows that Americans don't trust the federal government, and their level of trust continues to decline.

According to Politico:

A majority of voters say their confidence in the federal government’s ability is falling, according to a new Public Strategies Inc./Politico poll [PDF]. Sixty-two percent of respondents say their confidence in Washington has decreased over the past 12 months, while only 8 percent said their confidence has increased. Less than a third of those polled said their confidence in the federal government remained the same.

Glenn Reynolds (a.k.a. Instapundit) wonders when the "Obama effect" will kick in. Surely, surely, Americans will trust the feds just as soon as Mr. Hope & Change gets sworn in. Surely. (Interestingly, the poll found that only 35 per cent of Americans thought that "things in government are headed in the right direction," with 65 per cent thinking things are on "the wrong track.")

While I couldn't find a recent poll on Canadians' attitudes towards the feds, I did find this 2005 Trudeau Foundation poll showing that we are also mistrustful of our political ruling class. Only 27 per cent trusted the feds to do what was right always or most of the time (that number, of course, is ridiculously high. Trust the feds to do what's right? Did they include Kindergarteners in the poll?)

Of course, if you, dear reader, find a more recent poll on our trust in the federal government, please pass it under my nose so I can update this post.

Posted by P.M. Jaworski on January 14, 2009 in Canadian Politics | Permalink

Comments

This is nothing new nor surprising. Traditionally and historically Americans have always tended to be suspicious of government as opposed to Canadians. We have tended to be more conservative than Americans (historically at least) and have tended to be more willing to trust government. Americans on a whole have tended to be more independently-minded.

Posted by: Alain | 2009-01-14 1:10:02 PM

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