“Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.” — John Basil Barnhill (1914)
The American public’s growing mistrust and disdain for political leaders and institutions has been a long-term trend, spanning decades, though it seems to have deteriorated even faster over the past 10 or 15 years. Trust in political leaders has fallen more than 20 points — from 63 percent to 42 percent — just since 2004, Gallup polls show. And, while Congress has never been hugely popular, confidence in the legislative body has plunged from 40 percent or more during the 1970s to mere single digits today.