There’s an encouraging new poll from Gallup which reveals that 72 percent of Americans say something negative when asked for a one-word description of the federal government. Here’s the “word cloud” showing the results. As you can see, this is very similar to the results for a similar poll on how people describe Congress. Not surprisingly, “corrupt” and “incompetent” are prominent in both polls.
Here’s how Gallup describes the results:
A Sept. 20-21 USA Today/Gallup poll asked respondents what they would say “if someone asked you to describe the federal government in one word or phrase.” The accompanying chart shows the results in graphic form, with the words or phrases displayed according to how frequently they are mentioned. …Overall, 72% of responses about the federal government are negative, touching on its inefficiency, size, corruption, and general incompetence, with the most common specific descriptions being “too big,” “confused,” and “corrupt.” …The generally negative top-of-mind images of the federal government are consistent with the poor ratings the government receives in Gallup’s annual update on the images of business and industry sectors. In the most recent update, from August, 58% rated the federal government negatively and 26% positively.
A word of caution is appropriate at this point. I don’t have the link handy, but I recall recently reading that negative views about government don’t necessarily translate into support for smaller government. If my memory is correct, people apparently want more government-provided security in an environment where there is less faith in the competence of government. Doesn’t make sense to me, but I guess it means that all of us need to do a better job of helping people draw logical conclusions.
