For me, starting at the most local, city government, I think my mayor and city councel are incompetent but well meaning and not necessarily corrupt, the next towns over though are incomperent and corrupt for one, and thoroughly corrupt and probably prison time levels so for the mayor if it were ever to be investigated imho. My county government is competent, mostly anonymous, good solid admin types. At the state level, the legislature is mostly comprised of good well meaning folks who often do things or refuse to do things that leave me puzzled, but I don’t think they’re corrupt. The executive branch is much the same, sometimes I like the governor, and sometimes not.
US government…yeesh, the last time I can remember a government I trusted, in any of the 3 branches was at the start of the Regan years. Carter was an incompetent well meaning boob of a president, Regan was … I dunno, just awesome to my tween and teen self. After those halcyon days, nope, nada, no trust.
What about you? Do you trust your government? At what level does that trust start or stop?
My local (county) government seems pretty well run, AFAICT – schools are very good, good libraries and other services, cops seem a lot better than average (though I have little personal experience with them), etc.
I trust God and where He has me. I don’t trust worldly based authority, but my trust in God allows me to be here and God offers the protection I need from harm for me to do His work for His kingdom and glory. Our systems of government are inherently corrupt and use fear and force to rule. God’s system is above all that and have love, mercy and grace to help us. God will work through those who have love for others in their heart, so yes people in the government can do good and are not ‘bad’, and just like what I strive to do, they also strive to do the right thing and God’s kingdom does appear through them also.
The gist of this article is that many lenders have been raising the rates and fees they charge cities that have lost their local newspaper. Basically because they don’t trust them.
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Yes. If you want to look at it at way. Mostly, I think “trust” is the wrong word though. A representative government can grow and change in unexpected ways, so, I don’t think you can actually “trust” it. It really can’t control itself. But, generally I think it’s intentions are good but we have to keep struggling to try to keep it from spiraling out of control and hurting people.
No! Its sad to think many people do, if they will only read and see the government has only their plans at heart, not whats good for any of their “subjects”.
Yeah, sorta. Government is good at some things and not good at others. Most of the time, people are trying to do the right thing, but there are several problems:
Sometimes the government does things incompetently;
Sometimes certain people in government are corrupt;
Sometimes government loses sight of the big picture in solving a specific problem.
But sure as heck I think government is usually more trustworthy than corporations. For example, the DC Metropolitan Police Department with all its flaws is a heck of a lot more trustworthy - and more importantly accountable - than say, Blackwater security contractors.
But in no way is any trust I have in government the type of trust that would relieve the burden of oversight by the press, the people, elections, judges, etc.
Just as a reference point, for the federal government at least, the National Election Study has been asking people about this since the late 1950s. Basically, public trust in the federal government hit its high point in the first year of the Johnson administration, and has been on a general downward trajectory (but with some periodic upswings) since then.
Everyone who I have ever met that worked in government was a pretty decent person. I’m sure elected office is different, but most of the on the ground workers are making 50k, and trying to do their jobs.
Yeah but, in one way that shows that the system works, in identifying and prosecuting the bad guys? So, for that I would give them positive trust points. Of course, that likely doesn’t outweigh the volume of negative trust points for the wrong doers in the first place. But some of that gets into trusting the voters to make the right choices.
As for me, I generally trust my local, county, and state. I also generally trust my federal representatives. I find them to be good to neutral people trying to do good in difficult situations. None of the egregious scammers that seem to pop up in other localities. At the federal government level, I generally trust Democratic administrations to intend to make life better for as many Americans as possible. Whereas I find that Republican administrations try to make life better for fewer Americans, and seem comfortable making life decidedly worse for some Americans.
I’m part of my city government (city council member) so from where I sit everything is cool and everyone is trustworthy. Us current elected officials truly have the interest of the residents in mind and while it’s incredibly hard to please all of the people all of the time, we try to contend with being just pretty decent to everyone and making the occasional person very happy or very upset.
The county always seems pretty good. They’ve got good services. Problem is that we’re on the extreme north of the county, kind of far away from the population center (Akron) and we don’t get as much love up here as Akron and its direct suburbs. But they provide a great library system, zoo, sherriff’s office, and lots of disability services. I haven’t ever thought that they’re run poorly.
I really like my state rep for my district. Never met a political figure that was so extremely in tune with what I want for myself and my state. Great dude who is going to do great things. I don’t feel the same about the Ohio House as a whole, and definitely not the Governor. But I will say that I am seeing some bipartisan stuff happening which is good.
The US government…eh. I’m encouraged by many of the new faces but the majority of members of Congress are too powerful. It’s harder for me to agree with the electorate of the country as a whole than it is to agree with my fellow local voters, it seems.
Yes. But I do not always agree with it. I also don’t trust the competence of some of the politicians, even while I do trust them to be people of good will and intentions.
I know people in the bureaucracy and they are generally good people trying to do a good job like everyone else. We’re fairly respectable in the Corruptions Perception Index (22nd and really should be better) because you don’t usually have to bribe the clerk at the county office to get your dog a license or a building permit (Rodney Dangerfield jokes notwithstanding). Our corruption is baked in at the highest levels and legitimized by law.
I sat for two years on a school as a non-voting parent rep and I was impressed by the good will and integrity of the elected members. But I don’t trust any level of government that depends on lobbying, which I regard as legally permitted bribery. This cannot change as long as the supreme court says money = speech.
In general I don’t trust the government, but I trust large businesses even less. I feel like this is a position that often gets missed in discussions about ‘can you trust the government’. In practice you’re usually not deciding between ‘big government or nothing’ but ‘big government or big business’, like with Healthcare.
That’s an example of a tough conundrum which I call the Tuchman Paradox, after Barbara Tuchman’s description of it regarding the Italian Renaissance, which people look upon as being indescribably corrupt and with every sort of decadence abounding. But, she argues, we wouldn’t know about these infamous deeds if no one recorded them, and no one would record them if society were so corrupt that they were acceptable.