Only a third of Americans think they can trust the government most or all of the time. That's better than the last couple of years. But scandals and partisan bickering have caused a new generation of cynical voters. Phil Ponce talks with Andy Kohut and the regional commentators about American attitudes, past present and future, towards state and federal government.
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 A RealAudio version of this segment is available.
NEWSHOUR LINKS:
January 23, 1998
Andrew Kohut joins Shields and Gigot in discussing the Starr investigation.
June 17, 1997
Our Presidential Historians analyze the impact of Watergate on American political history.
April 7, 1997
A recent study revealed that a majority of Americans do not trust the media.
March 24, 1997
Hedrick Smith reports on campaign finance abuses and the public mistrust it has created.
January 17, 1997
Andrew Kohut discusses the national mood prior to President Clinton's second inauguration.
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the White House and Congress.
OUTSIDE LINKS:
The Pew Research Center
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PHIL PONCE: According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center for the Public
and the Press, public attitudes towards Washington have improved somewhat in
the last several years. But only a third of Americans think they can trust the
government most or all of the time. We get more on this and other poll findings
from Andy Kohut, director of the center, and joining him tonight are NewsHour
regular Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Constitution, Patrick McGuigan
of the Daily Oklahoman, Lee Cullum of the Dallas Morning News,
and Bob Kittle of the San Diego Union Tribune. Welcome, everybody.
Andy, if I could start with you, what are some of the key findings of the survey as far as the trends that pollsters have seen as far as trust in the government?
ANDREW
KOHUT, Pew Research Center: Well, the big news in this survey is that spiraling
distrust and hostility toward government that grew from the mid 80's to about
1994 seems to have reversed itself, or at least stopped. We had six measures
in this survey that deal with government, the most important is shown on that
chart, how much do you trust the government to do the right thing, and there's
a little tick upward, as many as 36 percent or 39 percent, and that chart
said they trust government to do the right thing. Four years ago it was half
that. It was 21 percent. And for the first time we see a reversal of a pretty
serious negative trend toward government that we had been measuring over that
period of time.
More public trust comes with positive feelings about the state of the nation at large.
PHIL PONCE: And how does the up-tick in the trust in government dovetail with the national mood in other areas? What does your survey tell you about that?
A
NDREW
KOHUT: Well, I think that's the second headline to come out of this survey,
that people's attitudes about trust in government or distrust of government
is not only about the workings of government, it's how the public feels about
the state of the nation at large. We have two trend lines, one which measures
trust in government, the other which measures ratings satisfaction with the
state of the nation, and they're very similar. Over the past 30 years they've
gone up and down with one another. First, they went down because of Watergate
and Vietnam, then over the economic problems of the 70's and 80's, and in
our view, and in our analysis now these numbers are being dragged down by
the moral crisis or the concerns about honesty and ethics that faces the country.
The American public doesn't feel good about the country because of its ethical
problems, its problems with honesty and character, and it blames government.
In a general sense, the distrust in government seems to be linked to that
sentiment.
PHIL PONCE: And to follow up on the link, there is a connection between the government's view towards the kinds of things you're talking about and trust in government.
ANDREW
KOHUT: Well, one of the most important links is distrust of or having a negative
view of political leaders is the leading cause of distrust in government.
And most of that negative view has to do with issues of honesty and ethics
and telling the--politicians telling the truth to the public.
PHIL PONCE: Well, let's take a look at what your survey said about recent figures on those lines. What--back in October of 1997--here's a graph that explains it--take it away.
Confidence in government slips due to Washington scandals.
ANDREW KOHUT: Well, when we did this--the principle survey, we found this
up-tick to 39 percent--we wondered in this environment of allegations about--and
the investigation of the President and concerns about Monica Lewinsky, whether
trust in governments--government had slipped as a 
consequence
of that, and basically we saw very little difference. It will take something
more than one more scandal in Washington and more allegations about Bill Clinton
to reverse it--to reverse these very, very basic numbers--basic feelings that
the American public has about their government and it has about the nation.
PHIL PONCE: And findings regarding how Americans view government?
ANDREW KOHUT: Well, basically, the American public, we found, has a very temperate view of government. We didn't find a lot of anger. Only 12 percent said they're angry with the government. Most people said--
PHIL PONCE: But a high level of frustration--
High levels of frustration, but less anger.
ANDREW
KOHUT: People say they're frustrated, and that's a lot different than anger--angry--that
12 percent who say they're angry contain many people who say they can countenance
violence against the country. We don't have a crisis where there's so much
distrust of the government that there's disrespect for laws, or less patriotism,
or a countenance of law breaking. We're not in a crisis situation. The times
are good; there's a lot of frustration with government.
PHIL PONCE: In spite of the frustration, what does your survey say about the kinds of things that government should be doing?
ANDREW
KOHUT: Well, one of the most important trends that we find in a survey is
that support for an activist government remains very, very strong. It remains
strong when we measure trend and opinion, back from 1964, the same percentage
of people at today say that the government should see that no one goes without
food and clothing; there is as much support for trying to do away with poverty
as there was in the mid 60's, when we were about to embark upon the war on
poverty and great liberalism and great government activism. And you can also
see that in more contemporary issues. All of the--many of the initiatives
or most of the initiatives that Bill Clinton has proposed, from hiring ten
thousand new teachers to a patient bill of rights, which were all government
programs, get 80 percent approval ratings. I mean, Bill Clinton understands
a certain--the degree to which the public is willing to respond particularly
on small bore issues to using government to solve problems.
PHIL PONCE: And, Andy, what does your research tell you about the reasons why people may dislike government?
ANDREW KOHUT: Well, most important, when we ask people an open-ended question, the reason that really comes through is complaints about the bosses in government, the political leadership, and, as I said a little earlier, those are mostly concerns about ethical issues. Now, there's also the performance issue--government not doing a good job at what it does.
PHIL PONCE: Is that what you mean by critique of government?
Young people worry about the honesty and ethics of leaders.
ANDREW
KOHUT: A critique of government and also government policies, but the most
important issue here for the public, particularly for the young people, is
their worries about the honesty and ethics of their political leaders. For
older people it's criticisms of government performance. There's an important
generation gap that relates to--relates to the way Vietnam and Watergate shaped
American attitudes, according to this survey.
PHIL PONCE: Patrick McGuigan, picking up on the issue of the fact that there didn't seem to be much change in the public's impression of trust towards government from October of last year to February of this year, why do you think that is?
"It's morality and the culture."
PATRICK
McGUIGAN, Daily Oklahoman: I don't know. I think that the poll as a
whole--the large--the larger poll, which I was able to read through today,
is just fascinating in its depth and in some of the nuances that we just saw
illustrated in those bar charts. I think citizens are reflecting in the current
polls satisfaction with the state of the economy and for the most part with
their own economic circumstances. But there is this profound unease that you
just referred to about morality and politics, but I think it's more than that.
It's morality and the culture. I'm not ashamed to say I'm a cultural conservative.
I'd like to conserve the best things in our ethical and moral traditions,
and I think citizens feel, they sense that those best things are endangered
in the state of the culture that we're in now. And that's reflected in this
data as well. On the one hand, they give the President some credit for a relatively
stable economy, but they're profoundly uneasy about this man's behavior.
PHIL PONCE: Cynthia Tucker, is there a profound unease about the President's behavior in the poll results, as you look at them?
CYNTHIA
TUCKER, Atlanta Constitution: Well, I think that the reason that Americans'
distrust of government has not gone into steep decline with these recent revelations
is because the American people believed that they knew what Bill Clinton was
about when they elected the first time in 1992. And what we have here are
allegations of behavior that seems to reflect what they think that they knew
about him already. So it comes as no great surprise. So, no, I don't think
the American people are profoundly uneasy about recent allegations about Bill
Clinton; however, I do think that there is a more general unease related to
not just Bill Clinton's behavior in his personal life, but whether or not
Bill Clinton and many other national leaders are too influenced by big money
and campaign contributions, whether you can depend on political leaders to
look you in the eye and tell you the whole truth, and I think that is not
just Bill Clinton but many of our best known Washington leaders. And so I
think that there is a general unease that has less to do with the recent allegations
about President Clinton's behavior but more to do with what we believe we've
seen as a slippage in the ethical values of government leaders over the last
twenty to thirty years.
PHIL PONCE: Bob Kittle, why do you think there seems to be a slight increase, as Andy Kohut talked about, in the level of trust in government?
People want the power and resources to fight local problems.
ROBERT
KITTLE, San Diego Union Tribune: Well, I think to begin with, the sex
scandal has not had its full impact yet, and so it's a little early to be
making any definitive pronouncements about it. But I think the obvious answer
is the people are feeling better because of the economy; they have more money
to spend, and so they're a little more satisfied with their government. But
I think the most interesting finding, certainly one of the most interesting
findings in Mr. Kohut's research, was that Americans are much less distrustful
of their state and local governments, that is, they seem to have more confidence
in the ability of state and local governments to address the problems that
they face. And I think that fits with the kind of moral discontent. We realize
that the problems of crime and drugs and low ethical standards are not problems
that an all-powerful federal government can solve, and people think it might
be time for their local governments and their state governments to tackle
these problems. And this would seem also to be kind of a natural evolution
of thinking after the end of the Cold War. I think throughout the Cold War
we had to rely on a strong federal government to keep it safe from the Soviet
threat. Now that there's been a very sharp decline in the Soviet threat, I
think people are not looking to Washington anymore to solve their problems.
They want to solve their problems at home, and they like to have the resources
and the power to do that.
PHIL PONCE: Lee Cullum, people looking more towards local answers to their problems, as opposed to looking to the Feds?
LEE
CULLUM, Dallas Morning News: Yes, Phil, I think that's true. I think
that Bob has a very good point there. I think that one thing that's going
on is this: national politicians have become so accustomed to speaking to
their publics only through television, only through mass mailing, and only
through the message politicians are frantic to stay on message, terrified
they might step on the message, and of course, the message is contrived. It's
a matter of technique, and people are catching on to this. Local politicians
are not as sophisticated, don't have as much money to spend, and I think they
speak more directly to people than national politicians are doing. So I think
that you have Americans feeling they haven't been spoken to by their national
elected representatives in years. Therefore, that builds more unease with
national institutions and greater ease with local government.
The Boomers are more skeptical and cynical.
PHIL
PONCE: Patrick McGuigan, another thing that the polls seem to show is that--as
far as unease is concerned, there seems to be the generational differences,
the young people, the boomers, seem to be a little more skeptical or cynical
towards government than the older generation. Why do you think that is?
PATRICK McGUIGAN: I don't know. My generation--people 45--in the 40's and younger--have a feeling that we didn't get the grounding in American traditions that the generations ahead of us did, and this problem is, if anything, exacerbated by the television age, by the diversity, if you will, of the media spectrum. There are so many ways to receive information we don't have as many common cultural reference points. I know I for one in the last presidential election I didn't think that Bob Dole was perfect by any means but I was hoping that the World War II generation, which as a historian I regard as the greatest generation in our history since the founding, I kept hoping that they would save us or rescue us one more time, and it didn't work out that way. I'm concerned about the lack of rootedness in what we call Judeo Christian traditions of the contemporary rising generation of political leadership.
PHIL PONCE: Cynthia Tucker, what's your take on the difference in generations and how they look at government?
CYNTHIA
TUCKER: Well, it is interesting to me that in the survey we baby boomers are
regarded as young. I'm not sure that I can agree with that. But it is certainly
true that those of us who came of age with Vietnam and Watergate have a very
different view of government. I mean, we were taught fairly early that government
leaders would look us in the face and tell us a lie. And it has been hard
for us to recover from that. It's also true, however, that the news media
give us much, much more information on the personal failings and foibles of
our leaders than the older generation grew up with. You know, Jackie Kennedy
created Camelot with the aid of a journalist who felt favorably toward the
Kennedy administration. Back in an earlier generation the news media felt
it among their duties to help guard the public images of leaders and politicians.
That's no longer true. We're constantly inundated with news of the failings
of our government leaders and it is very hard to have anything but cynicism
when we're constantly confronted with the little lies and the little betrayals.
A permanent sense of confidence?
PHIL PONCE: I'm going to have to end it with Andy. Andy, your assessment as a pollster, how do you know when a slight change like this in the past few years is a blip, or whether it's something that's permanent?
ANDREW
KOHUT: Well, we don't know, but what we see here was the potential for those
numbers to begin to resemble the satisfaction that people had with their own
lives, but the scandal in Washington, the real impact of the scandal over
Washington is that it may have thwarted President Clinton's ability to make
Americans feel better about the country or for the country to have a turnaround
in views about government and the state of the nation, consistent with a turnaround
in how they view their own lives. And so we can only wait and see whether
the scandal will disappear and the public will have a better view of the country,
or whether those numbers will go back to the way they were. My guess is that
we'll probably see no change for some time.
PHIL PONCE: And that's where we're going to have to leave it. Thank you all very much.
