We know that inflation is bad – nobody likes it and today’s numbers show there is not an end in sight. But today, we’re going to focus on the January 6th hearings which began in primetime last night. Let’s focus on the broader question of the public’s trust in government.
A new Pew poll reports that American’s trust in government is at an all-time low 20%, off from a high of over 70% during the Regan years. With so little trust in the government, do these hearings matter? Or has the public already made up their minds and dug in even further to their political tribes?
Is democracy even still alive and well?
We welcome your comments on this matter as well as the state of our union. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.
As a person who observed the Watergate hearings from beginning to end, I can only observe the congressional hearings on the January 6th insurrection from the same perspective. The Watergate hearings were broadcast over a much longer period of time, and the detail they revealed was dense and meandering as a soap opera, leading up to a climactic denouement that found the sitting president guilty of perjury and his resignation. The current congressional hearings on January 6th have begun with the indictment of the former president based on direct testimony of some of his key subordinates and his own daughter. While the Watergate break-in represented a plan to gather intelligence on the opposing presidential candidate, the January 6th insurrection was planned to effect a coup d’etat and remove a legitimately elected government from power. The distinction between the two cases is stark. The former president continues to build his case that the Biden administration is illegitimate and should be removed from power – in effect, an extension of his original plan to oust the Biden administration before it could be certified. This distinction is paramount. While they are few in number, some courageous Republicans are accusijng Donald Trump of sedition, even while he is in the process of masterminding a return to power. If the federal government cannot deal with this appalling case, democracy can surely be pronounced ‘dead’ as Jeremy suggests. I do hope that the roles played by federal officials who encouraged the violent insurrection, includinfg Madison Cawthorn, will be brought to light.
Most interesting. In order to really portray beyond the anti trump narrative one needs to looks at the facts in play. Difficult because of the scrubbing of social media, youtube and internet in general. I had watch an interview of tje person who was directly behind the woman who was shot. The young man ended with a plea for action to hold the government accountable to the people. That video was gone the next morning. John, you point out that 80% of citizens dont trust the government. Translate this to it doesnt have the interest of citizenery at heart. Eisenhower warned of the vast military industrial complex invading the fabric of citizen democracy ideals. The concentration of wealth and power is dangerous, always has been. Its far beyond that original warning now with foreign aide, trade agreements and “nation state policing” intended to promote national interest. Even the Great Society failed experiment that wields so much money now. To the point, I just watched 2000 Mules. While frought with sensationalism, it portrays the exploitation of some fringe loopholes that perhaps could have and previously been exploited to manipulate election outcomes. It confirms that there is something beyond the citizens that are determing the rule of our nation as Jeremy indicated. Most of this is not reported and the narrative burys it. I agree that you dont build the nation on a single person but rather tje body of citizenry at large. 80% of them seem to agree. So a faction of this 80% decides to protest against what the large unpopular machine did during this election. They did.not.murder anyone as was done in some BLM protests where police were shot. They did not burn government buildings that shut down key services and court proceedings as protesters did in Portland and Seattle. They were asked to make their voices heard and along the way incited into a mob mentality that resulted in lesser actions that many other protests had but were nevertheless inappropriate. A gathering outside would have been enough to deliver the.message perhaps.
Given the Russia witch hunt the appears to be another partisan campaign of tje same. It is dividing a seriously broken democracy that has jr house.member becoming millionairs in a few short years. So John how should the colonists have gotten their voices heard? These are very troubling time and there isnt any single party or person to point a finger at but there are.larger forces.at play that are negating our democracy. I too wish we could have productive dialog. BTW, I had a couple from Switzerland at the 2000 mules viewing (Jeremy will know them and they are very progressive thinking) and they were apalled that could happen in America. “Someome.meeds to stop this” were their exact words but… If any of the logical solutions are mentioned it is because you want to supress the vote. John, I too am unsettled by this all amd don’t see our elected leaders addressing this. Only making it worse, the peaceful transition of power that our 45 president got was worse than Watergate.