Dissatisfaction with Government - The New Gallup Poll

We have something more than a credit crisis. We have a governance crisis. According to the new Gallup Governance poll, only 26% of Americans are satisfied with the way this nation is being governed. In 2002, the number was 59%. As recently as early 2007, the number was 42%. This is a bigger drop than the stockmarket. Perhaps our nation belongs in moral bankruptcy court. The last time 74% of Americans were dissatisfied with their government was after Watergate. The response was a host of government laws at the federal level, although this movement only lightly filtered down to local governments. The figure for local government is far better: 72% of Americans are satisfied with their local government. And 67% are satisfied with their state government. That’s not a crisis, but perhaps the reason is that most people, due to their ingestion of national TV news, pay far less attention to state and local government.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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