OP-ED: Democracy depends on trust
Trust in American institutions has been dissipating for over a half a century. Long before we had the COVID-19 arguments over masks, we already had Watergate, Vietnam, and Iran-Contra. Each of those made us wonder if the folks in charge knew what they were doing or were lying to our faces.
For a very brief, flag-waving moment after 9/11, our trust spiked. But then came word that Saddam didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. That little mistake cost over 4,000 American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and nearly $2 trillion. Our trust never bounced back.
Then came Hurricane Katrina. If you were wondering whether the United States government could show up when people needed it most, the answer was hell no. We saw unforgettable images of people stranded on rooftops and in the Superdome while our federal officials looked like deer in headlights.
The 2008 financial collapse was another gut-punch. Wall Street tanked the economy. Millions of Americans lost their homes and jobs. I had begun working on a research institute in the Fort Myers area where there were 110,000 houses on the open market. Those in power in Washington, D.C., rushed in to save the banks on Wall Street, but the regular people on Main Street got foreclosure notices. Meanwhile, those bankers got bonuses and avoided jail time as friends and neighbors moved into cardboard boxes under a bridge.
Two decades in Afghanistan didn’t help. The goals shifted from taking out al-Qaeda, to building a democracy, and finally to just hang on until we could figure out how to get out. After another $2 trillion and thousands of lives later, we left in chaos.
By the time COVID-19 hit, trust was already worse than gas-station sushi. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flip-flopped every other day, and social media took over with conspiracy theories, chip implants, and amateur epidemiologists spouting off like Old Faithful. When we realized that our masks and ventilators didn’t exist, the word “competence” did not come to mind. For many of us, it confirmed that our politics and institutions were not working.
The ugly truth kept coming. Astronomical tuition, $1.7 trillion in student debt, and our religion and universities were rocked by scandal. The media was like the game show, “Who Can You Trust?” No matter which way you turned there was bias before the first sentence.
Congress scrapes the bottom of the trust pile with a whopping 12% approval rating, and the U.S. Supreme Court is enjoying the kind of approval ratings that make root canals look good. We haven’t even begun to discuss AI and deep fake videos.
Here is the problem: Democracy runs on trust. Without it, conspiracy theories grow like weeds, polarization gets worse, and even the basics like voting, public health, and trust in your neighbors become an uphill battle. Without trust, autocracy takes hold.
But there’s a silver lining. We are incredibly resilient. After Vietnam, after Watergate, after the 2008 crash, we found ways to rebuild.
Trust can return, but not through thoughts and prayers. Trust comes back when we choose leaders who choose transparency over spin, accountability over excuses, and people over donors.
The cure isn’t complicated. If we want a better country for our children and grandchildren, we have to hold the people in power accountable. The only way to do that is to reform systems that are controlled by special interests.
Despite everything, Americans still care. We still volunteer, still vote, still argue passionately at Thanksgiving dinners because it does matter. That stubborn energy — combined with those leaders and institutions that are still willing to meet us halfway – might be the secret sauce to restoring trust.
In the end, the choice is simple: people or politics. If our leaders can’t figure that out, they may find the people won’t trust them with so much as the TV remote, let alone the future of our country.
Nick Jacobs resides in Windber.