The kick is coming. A shocking PEW Research poll was released on April 30. In one sense it is shocking, in another what you expect: “80 percent of Americans believe elected officials do not care … what people like them think.” The shock is that 20 percent think they care. My view: Most do not.
The PEW poll, which represents a “new low” for democratic government, is riveting. It finds, among other things, that 86 percent of men and 84 percent of women think the government – elected state and federal officials – “do not care” what they think. In other words, they are unaccountable, free agents.
Interestingly, while you might have to conduct the poll under hypnosis, a tally of what those elected officials themselves think – in a truth serum way – might confirm the sad perception. Arrogance in power, at the state and federal level, is a runaway contagion, betrayal of trust an epidemic.
Not surprisingly, the PEW poll – a relatively balanced assessment – is sobering. Most sobering is the prevalence of this public view. Literally more than 80 percent of Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, those over 18, 30, 50, and 65, educated and less so, Republican and Democrat share this exact view.
Only four (4) percent of the nation think the political system is “working well.” The implications of that poll are more sobering than the numbers. Americans believe those they have elected, or those appointed by those they elected, do not care – are in their own world, pushing their own agenda.
In the old days, they would say that this means those in power are inebriated with power, drunk on one-party monopoly where they have it, acting outside the lines, irresponsible, faithless, and unaccountable, just in their own world. We would condemn the draft away from democratic moorings, hunger for a bit of humility, and be repulsed by those who tell us what to do.
Those days may be returning, because people are – as the poll suggests – sick of being dictated to, told by mandate, executive order, or at the state level, one-party rule, what to do, stripped of rights.
While people are afraid of being judged if they express anger, 80 percent are either “angry” or “frustrated” with the federal government. Just as many seem distressed, based on other data, with state-level representatives. And who can blame them?
At the federal level, take your own blood pressure when keywords are mentioned, like “open borders,” “inflation,” “gas prices,” “housing prices,” “Afghanistan,” “Iran, “China,” “Hamas,” “loan forgiveness,” “Hunter’s laptop,” “media,” “Hillary Clinton,” “Joe Biden,” “Camila Harris.” See?
We ARE frustrated. At the state level, it is no better. Pick any state. You will see that trust is low, expectations of betrayal high, disdain for regulations, taxes, mandates, and lawmakers poor.
While there are dogged, moral, high-integrity public servants, and always have been, we live in a time of distrust – and not without reason. In Maine, where I live – Democrats control both chambers and governorship. They just pushed free housing and gifts for thousands of illegal aliens, have ignored 100,000 veterans, insisted on abortion at birth where most are horrified at the thought, and took us out of the electoral college – and we are exactly the kind of state for which it was designed.
Similarly, Democrat legislators all but seethe when forced to listen to “common sense” Mainers, tradesmen and women, farmers, lobstermen and fishermen, construction workers, homebuilders, seniors, students who want good jobs, taxpayers who do not want more subsidies of mass wind farms and solar fields built on what was the forest. Watching them, they virtually sneer.
But we are “The People,” and we are the ones for whom they do – constitutionally – work. This may be the “Year of the Failed Incumbent.” Politicians try to buy us, stupefy us, advertise and digitally dumbfound us, numb us with narratives, transform us with their will, and as PEW’s poll suggests – just plain ignore us. But beware the silent lion, crouching cougar, and still crocodile. We move.
This is the year that a massive shift occurs, and you can feel it coming – a level of distrust, disaffection, frustration, and betrayal by those in the government of common people. We have had it.
So, as you look at this poll, and listen to the pundits scratch their heads, if you are like me, you do not have to scratch much. This is crystal clear. People have had it with lying leaders, they are done.
Mr. Biden, Democrat Senators, House members, state-level Democrats – Maine to Montana, North Dakota to North Carolina – hold onto your hat. That poll is your spoiler alert. Things are changing, and when they do, you will likely feel a bit of compression in your backseat. The kick is coming.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
