Once again, I’ll agree jgw. Yes, it seems most Americans view the situation as their government and not ours. 3/4ths of all Americans don’t trust their government. You can scan the graphs and come to your own conclusions.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/05/17/public-trust-in-government-1958-2021/I believe all these personal political attack ads which began in earnest in the 1990’s has a lot to do with it. After awhile the party faithful will begin to believe the other party and its members are the evilest scumbags on the face of this earth. Independents since they get it from both sides believe both parties are evil. They have no one or party they trust in government in which the two major political parties, their candidates and elected officials make up the government. It becomes permanently their government with independents with no trust in their government be it Republican or Democratic party controlled.
Here's a SWAG, when both parties had their conservative and liberal wings, when party ideology wasn’t as stark today, trust was high among all Americans. It was more of an American agenda put forth than a Republican or Democratic, a conservative or liberal agenda as is the case today. I’m positive that both parties, both ideologies think they’re presenting an American agenda, but, it’s their own agenda which leaves out 2/3rds of America. This may be all wet, it’s just a SWAG.
An interesting aspect of this, is trust was the highest when around 80% of all Americans identified with the two major parties when both parties had their liberal, moderate and conservative wings. Today, only around 55% of all Americans identify themselves with the two major parties, the parties are split into conservative and liberal ideologies, trust in government is very low. Are these related. I don’t know, just something that struck my fancy.
