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I caught this on the news the other night that seems quite fitting as we consider Sanders or Trump, also a good piece to pass along to those who want to blame all our present-day woes on Obama...
Jeff Greenfield is a seasoned political journalist and author, and he shares his belief about the end of trust by Americans in this country’s institutions.
Greenfield has titled his essay “In Nothing We Trust.”
JEFF GREENFIELD, Journalist: It’s not exactly breaking news that we’re entering this political high season in the winter of our discontent.
The polls and the political rhetoric speak to a mood of anger, distrust, even outright betrayal. But take a look beyond the political realm, and you will find something that runs longer than the current campaign, and deeper than politics.
The unhappy fact is that Americans’ trust in just about all our institutions has been in a long, almost unbroken decline. Our trust in government? A Pew Research poll last November found that only 19 percent of us trusted the government to do what was right all or most of the time. That’s close to an historic low.
But the real story here is how long that distrust has been festering. Go back to 1964, when the U.S. was in the midst of a long period of economic growth, when the Cold War was easing, when a major civil rights bill had just been passed.
Back then, 77 percent trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time. A decade later, after a divisive war, racial and generational unrest, a president driven from office in scandal, the number had dropped to 36 percent. And in the four decades since, it has never hit 50 percent, not even in the surge of patriotism after 9/11.
That’s about 40 years’ worth of alienation from the government of, by and for people.
Well, OK, but that’s the government. We are a nation born in revolt, with a permanent skepticism about our leaders. But now look at our feelings about other major institutions, and the picture, painted by a series of Gallup surveys going back decades, finds a disturbingly similar pattern.
Our churches? Two-thirds of us had a lot of trust in our religious institutions back in 1973. Now barely 42 percent do. Banks? Trust has gone from 60 percent back in 1979 to 28 percent now. Our public schools? More than half were trusting at the end of the ’70s. Barely three in 10 are today.
Organized labor? Big business? The medical system? The presidency? All get low grades. And before you ask, 21 percent profess a lot of faith in television news, less than half the percentage that did so little more than 20 years ago.
Other than the military, the police, and small business, no institution commands the trust of a majority of us, and even those are less trusted than they once were.
Well, the question is, why? One obvious answer, there’s good reason for this mistrust. How confident should we be in banks after the financial meltdown, in our public schools, given the woeful marks our students get compared with other nations, in our religious leaders, given the criminal sexual behavior of those who’ve spoken in God’s name?
But we’re also living in a less innocent time. The press was strictly controlled in World War II. The failures, strategic and moral, in places like Iraq, are on full display. The private lives of politicians, once carefully concealed, are now matters of public speculation.
Movies that celebrated heroes of the church or finance now tell very different stories of greed and sin. And the media messengers who show us the feet of clay on those that stand on the pedestals, well, they are increasingly seen as carriers of a partisan agenda, or guilty of their own failures.
But, deserved or not, the lengthy disaffection that so many feel about so many important parts of our national life clearly puts a heavy burden on anyone asking for the trust of the citizenry. It may, indeed, reward those who seek power, not by offering to ease that disaffection, but to feed it.
And it’s worth asking, how does a nation thrive when, year after year, our motto is, in nothing we trust?
I think the 40 years of neo-liberal policies has contributed greatly to this as well. Its basically part of the design. The system becomes increasingly corrupt and with systemic corruption, systemic reform is needed, not just tinkering at the edges. We can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite or we can have democracy, but we can't have both.
I caught this on the news the other night that seems quite fitting as we consider Sanders or Trump, also a good piece to pass along to those who want to blame all our present-day woes on Obama...
Jeff Greenfield is a seasoned political journalist and author, and he shares his belief about the end of trust by Americans in this country’s institutions.
Greenfield has titled his essay “In Nothing We Trust.”
JEFF GREENFIELD, Journalist: It’s not exactly breaking news that we’re entering this political high season in the winter of our discontent.
The polls and the political rhetoric speak to a mood of anger, distrust, even outright betrayal. But take a look beyond the political realm, and you will find something that runs longer than the current campaign, and deeper than politics.
The unhappy fact is that Americans’ trust in just about all our institutions has been in a long, almost unbroken decline. Our trust in government? A Pew Research poll last November found that only 19 percent of us trusted the government to do what was right all or most of the time. That’s close to an historic low.
But the real story here is how long that distrust has been festering. Go back to 1964, when the U.S. was in the midst of a long period of economic growth, when the Cold War was easing, when a major civil rights bill had just been passed.
Back then, 77 percent trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time. A decade later, after a divisive war, racial and generational unrest, a president driven from office in scandal, the number had dropped to 36 percent. And in the four decades since, it has never hit 50 percent, not even in the surge of patriotism after 9/11.
That’s about 40 years’ worth of alienation from the government of, by and for people.
Well, OK, but that’s the government. We are a nation born in revolt, with a permanent skepticism about our leaders. But now look at our feelings about other major institutions, and the picture, painted by a series of Gallup surveys going back decades, finds a disturbingly similar pattern.
Our churches? Two-thirds of us had a lot of trust in our religious institutions back in 1973. Now barely 42 percent do. Banks? Trust has gone from 60 percent back in 1979 to 28 percent now. Our public schools? More than half were trusting at the end of the ’70s. Barely three in 10 are today.
Organized labor? Big business? The medical system? The presidency? All get low grades. And before you ask, 21 percent profess a lot of faith in television news, less than half the percentage that did so little more than 20 years ago.
Other than the military, the police, and small business, no institution commands the trust of a majority of us, and even those are less trusted than they once were.
Well, the question is, why? One obvious answer, there’s good reason for this mistrust. How confident should we be in banks after the financial meltdown, in our public schools, given the woeful marks our students get compared with other nations, in our religious leaders, given the criminal sexual behavior of those who’ve spoken in God’s name?
But we’re also living in a less innocent time. The press was strictly controlled in World War II. The failures, strategic and moral, in places like Iraq, are on full display. The private lives of politicians, once carefully concealed, are now matters of public speculation.
Movies that celebrated heroes of the church or finance now tell very different stories of greed and sin. And the media messengers who show us the feet of clay on those that stand on the pedestals, well, they are increasingly seen as carriers of a partisan agenda, or guilty of their own failures.
But, deserved or not, the lengthy disaffection that so many feel about so many important parts of our national life clearly puts a heavy burden on anyone asking for the trust of the citizenry. It may, indeed, reward those who seek power, not by offering to ease that disaffection, but to feed it.
And it’s worth asking, how does a nation thrive when, year after year, our motto is, in nothing we trust?
The communists started to infiltrate the colleges in the 60's... now we have a communist running for president.. Obama's transformation has begun.
America is on the path to socialist communism..The communists have placed themselves in the colleges to get the young crowd turned into liberal progressive communists.
The communists have used social agendas, race, homosexuality, class warfare, and war, and a host of other situations to advance their cause. One cannot go to college without many teachers directing them to liberal thinking.
They had to kick God out because it is impossible to train the mind of those who believe in God, have faith, because the government wants to be their god, the answer to all their social problems, and will take over with complete control. Their is no morality with the government. They are humanist, and they choose what is moral and what is not. They become god and take all power and use collectivism and fight against individual beliefs. There is no freedom . Morality is lost with greed, getting everything free, no work ethic, no shame, and run away materialism.. look at the tv.. it is all about stuff.
The communists started to infiltrate the colleges in the 60's... now we have a communist running for president.. Obama's transformation has begun.
America is on the path to socialist communism..The communists have placed themselves in the colleges to get the young crowd turned into liberal progressive communists.
The communists have used social agendas, race, homosexuality, class warfare, and war, and a host of other situations to advance their cause. One cannot go to college without many teachers directing them to liberal thinking.
They had to kick God out because it is impossible to train the mind of those who believe in God, have faith, because the government wants to be their god, the answer to all their social problems, and will take over with complete control. Their is no morality with the government. They are humanist, and they choose what is moral and what is not. They become god and take all power and use collectivism and fight against individual beliefs. There is no freedom . Morality is lost with greed, getting everything free, no work ethic, no shame, and run away materialism.. look at the tv.. it is all about stuff.
Whenever I read comments like this, I am reminded of George Wallace...
In September 1963, Wallace attempted to stop four black students from enrolling in four separate elementary schools in Huntsville. After intervention by a federal court in Birmingham, the four children were allowed to enter on September 9, becoming the first to integrate a primary or secondary school in Alabama.
Wallace desperately wanted to preserve segregation. In his own words: "The President (John F. Kennedy) wants us to surrender this state to Martin Luther King and his group of pro-communists who have instituted these demonstrations."
Politicians have been lying to us for years but it is only recently that the lies have infiltrated every aspect of our lives.
We can blame the media trying to get the latest "gotcha" moment and we can blame the instant internet for spreading the latest scandal a round the world.
The biggest lie that affects millions daily is obamacare. How many times did he tell us that we would save money and "If we liked our doctor we can keep our doctor" ?
What a mess of lies.
There are many people who are really upset at the Benghazi scandal. America simply does not leave our military out there to die and the lies to cover it up and despite the evidence a certain candidate still will say the attack was caused by a anti muslim video.
Politicians have been lying to us for years but it is only recently that the lies have infiltrated every aspect of our lives.
We can blame the media trying to get the latest "gotcha" moment and we can blame the instant internet for spreading the latest scandal a round the world.
The biggest lie that affects millions daily is obamacare. How many times did he tell us that we would save money and "If we liked our doctor we can keep our doctor" ?
What a mess of lies.
There are many people who are really upset at the Benghazi scandal. America simply does not leave our military out there to die and the lies to cover it up and despite the evidence a certain candidate still will say the attack was caused by a anti muslim video.
The public simply expects a politician to lie.
“I don’t know what we want from you,” Mr. Cummings said, accusing Republicans of using taxpayer dollars to try to destroy Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. “Do we want to badger you over and over again until you do get so tired so we get the gotcha moment?”
Clearly touched by his words, Mrs. Clinton thanked Mr. Cummings and said that she had done all that she could to answer more than ten hours of questions. She then expressed hope that, somehow, statesmanship could overcome partisanship.
“It is deeply unfortunate that something as serious as what happened in Benghazi could ever be used for partisan political purposes,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can move forward together.”
Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, much like we now know there were no WMD in Iraq after some might say we were "lied" to about all that evidence to the contrary, snookering an entire Congress short of one particular Senator into supporting the invasion of Iraq...
Now that's what I might call a lie. Nixon lied. Clinton about Lewinsky..., those are more the sort of lies that we all know as such regardless whether we are liberal or conservative.
When it comes to Obama an Obamacare, I don't view those "promises" in the same way, mostly because as much as we would like to think any one man or POTUS can have things done just as they request, the reality of what politics and/or Congress will allow is something else altogether...
In particular when it comes to Hillary and Benghazi, I do believe we need to hold our government officials accountable, no doubt, but we also must be reasonable when it comes to our expectations, especially as a people who are loath to have our taxes raised to cover more comprehensive government services including military presence and readiness.
Fact is, there are nearly 300 U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the world, and when I ask how I would know better where greater protection against unexpected attack might take place, I am hard-pressed to guess I would know better than Hillary did when the Benghazi attack occurred. Then, for back-up forces to be so far removed..., I'm not sure that was Hillary's doing either. We also had Ambassador Stevens there who you might THINK would be better aware of the threat, but no, not him either...
No doubt there was likely some CYA afterward that might also be expected, but Hillary did take responsibility and all told, I'm not sure what more can be expected. Did she "lie?"
PS-The (mainstream) media is just as controlled/censored today as it ever was. 90% of all media is owned by 6 Corporations and generally stories are approved for print. The internet is the only difference today, but it is an immense difference in how most Americans, especially those who are younger, get their news and world views.
PS-The (mainstream) media is just as controlled/censored today as it ever was. 90% of all media is owned by 6 Corporations and generally stories are approved for print. The internet is the only difference today, but it is an immense difference in how most Americans, especially those who are younger, get their news and world views.
I make a point of scanning about eight different news sites every morning before work that include local, national and foreign services, so you need not only be looking at news from those "6 corporations" (and should not).
Also agreed the Internet is making things much different today. Seeing police action, right or wrong, immediately on video is just one of many examples that certainly makes for a new day. Admittedly, I sometimes worry how youngsters are getting their news and how they are processing it. I'm not at all sure all that time and focus staring into their hand-held device is productive from a learning standpoint, but all that remains to be seen I suppose...
Also, btw, as I have posted before here-and-there along the way when this subject of news sources comes up, the PBS Newshour is about the best one-hour source of news I have been able to find anywhere. About as balanced a presentation of all sides as any other reporting, professional, and no commercials! I do my best to catch at least that one hour every week day if nothing else.
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The ghost of Wallace...
