Montana News
Trust in government is near historic lows, driving some people away from the ballot box
As reporters at Montana Public Radio talked with potential voters this year, "trust," or the lack of it, came up a lot. Some Montanans don’t feel like it’s worth casting a ballot. They don’t feel heard by the people campaigning to represent them in government.
- Broadcast on:
- 10 Oct 2024
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- other
With Montana news, I'm Eleanor Smith. As reporters at Montana Public Radio talked with potential voters this year, trust or the lack of it came up a lot. Some Montanans don't feel like it's worth casting a ballot. They don't feel heard by the people campaigning to represent them in government. MTPR's Edward O'Brien filed this report. Nathaniel Palmer reckons it's been at least a couple of years since he last voted. Palmer recently confirmed he's registered to cast a ballot for the November election. Thing is, he's just not sure he wants to. Ooh, that's a tough one. Palmer feels politically unheard and unappreciated. At times it doesn't seem like my vote counts. And I'm only one person in a really big pond and so it doesn't matter. The 35-year-old Army veteran and recent graduate of Montana State University Billing says he's deeply skeptical of politicians and politics in general. I think I started to really sour on politics when I was still in the military. Palmer recalls his resentment after learning a government shutdown meant he and his fellow soldiers serving in Afghanistan would be required to work without pay. Why are we having such issue with a budget? And it was just like, okay, so you guys only care about your own agenda and not everybody else. Palmer says he cares about the cost of living, protecting the Second Amendment, health care for veterans and education. But he doesn't see serious or meaningful discussion about those issues from our political leaders. A rocket attack at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan left him with a traumatic brain injury. Palmer says it took a year's long struggle with the VA to get a proper diagnosis and the necessary treatment deepening his frustration with government. Palmer is hardly an outlier. The Pew Research Center says Americans view of elected officials, politics and government in general is unrelentingly negative. According to Pew, the number of people who believe the government can be trusted just about always or most of the time is near historic lows at 22%. It hasn't always been this way. In 1958, some three-quarters of Americans trusted the federal government to almost always do the right thing. You see Berkeley, professor of political science and public policy, Henry Brady. Well, that was a prosperous time when everybody shared in prosperity and it seemed like people trusted institutions. That trust started to deteriorate with the civil unrest of the '60s, a time marked by the emergence of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and political assassinations. The final straw for many Americans was the Watergate scandal in 1972. The investigation into political corruption, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon deeply rattled Americans' faith in their government. That mistrust has metastasized over the subsequent five-plus decades and tarnished the reputations of other institutions, including finance, journalism, religion, education, and law enforcement. And that's worrisome because those are the institutions that do the day-to-day work of making our society work. If you don't trust the police, it's going to be hard for the police to get their job done. Brady says inequality is one of the key factors behind America's mistrust and resentment of government and politicians. There's much more income inequality today than there was in 1970. Another thing is we're a much more diverse society than we were. We were about 83 percent white in 1970. Today we're almost majority-minority so that as a result, there's just a lot more different folks out there and there's distrust, there's tribalism. And that takes difficult conversations to build trust between people with different values and backgrounds. According to Brady, this growing cynicism is not unique to America and it's leading to a global increase in populism and ideology appealing to ordinary people who feel their concerns are disregarded by the establishment. And then they often turn towards a strong man or person to try to run the government on the grounds that that's the only way that they can solve the problems they have. Brady notes that while Americans distrust politicians in general, they're more forgiving of their local elected officials. Well, they know something about their local, let's say, member of Congress who is present in the community. They see that person, that person often looks like them in one way or another. This is a standard finding we find again and again that local is trusted more than national. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Social Psychology Professor Kurt Gray agrees the stakes are high in this era of political polarization and institutional mistrust. At the same time, I don't think we're ever too far gone. Like Henry Brady, Gray believes structural factors including social media, partisan cable news outlets and America's two-party political system for men's division and institutional distrust. However, he also sees a glimmer of hope. I talk with people every day who have diverse political beliefs and it's clear that people are hungry for understanding and hungry for connection. There are no easy fixes to winning back Americans' trust in their government, but Gray says we can take baby steps in that direction. He points out that exploring our common root values instead of reflexively, demonizing those with different values can help bridge our partisan differences, perhaps even helping to repair our institutional mistrust. All it takes is just a little conversation to see the other person's human, ask them about their beliefs, just seek to learn about the other person. And once you try to learn about someone, then you lower the temperature in your own life and I think for the country too. Back in Billings, Nathaniel Palmer years ago briefly considered pursuing a career in politics. He was excited by the proposition that, as he puts it, he could make a difference. Then came the realization he had no backing and no connections to the political establishment. So it's like, can normal people really do anything? And then, of course, from that point of just nothing but slanderism and bad talking and just adds that say this person is going to destroy your world compared to, this is what I stand for, has really affected the way I view things and I'm just kind of tired of it. With mere weeks to go until election day, Palmer is still mulling whether to participate in the political system he finds so unsatisfying, insulting to his intelligence and disappointing. I still haven't decided that yet. I'm still kind of waiting for someone to maybe draw me over to their side. So what would it take to tempt him back into the voting booth? These are his suggestions. Career politicians and newcomers alike clearly explain policy positions, goals and accomplishments. Draw coherent distinctions between yourself and your opponents. Knock it off with the trash talk in UNDO outright lies and half truths. Palmer says he and a lot of other people are sick and tired of that stuff. Reporting from Missoula, I'm Edward O'Brien.