OPINION: Declining trust threatens democracy

Americans trust each other less than we used to, and that’s creating problems for our ability to govern ourselves. Ultimately, it raises questions about the future of our democracy. A recent report from the Pew Research Center explains the dilemma. Trust, it says, is “the oil that lubricates the frictions of daily life.” We need trust to work together to solve problems. It keeps the economy functioning. It makes it easier to get along with neighbors. People who trust others are more likely to help strangers and volunteer to support the common good. But surveys show that trust has been eroding for years. A generation or so ago, about half of Americans said in surveys that most people can be trusted. In recent years, the share who say most people can be trusted has dropped to one-third. Our declining trust in each other leads to less trust in institutions, including government. When I was first elected to Congress, in 1964, four in five Americans trusted their elected leaders to do the right thing. Today, only 20 percent of us trust public officials. That makes it hard to govern. Trust is essential in foreign policy. We need to be able to count on our allies, and they need to be able to count on us. We need to know that nations will honor their treaty obligations and follow through on commitments. The institutions that created a prosperous and largely peaceful world order after World War II were built on a foundation of trust. In dealing with adversaries, as President Ronald Reagan famously said, you “trust but verify.” The reasons for our declining trust are many. Our divisive political climate is both a cause and an effect of the fact that we don’t trust each other. Partisanship has pushed Americans into warring camps, angry and suspicious. Democrats and Republicans think the worst of each other. Changes in the news media have amplified distrust. Many of us remember how, in the 1960s and 1970s, CBS anchor Walter Cronkite was called the most trusted man in America. There were deep divisions over civil rights, the Vietnam War, and other topics, but we all watched the same news via the three TV networks. Today, we can seek out news and opinions that tell us what we want to hear, whether that’s CNN, Fox News, or NPR. Increasingly, we get information from unreliable sources, often shared on social media. Rumors, fake news, and disinformation spread online like viruses. Economic insecurity and challenges with housing and health care can make people distrustful. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the situation. For months, we stayed at home or wore masks and practiced social distancing in public. We lost connection with each other, and, with it, we lost trust. Health authorities struggled to explain the changing science. Trust in experts took a beating. All this created fertile ground for politicians to capitalize on distrust. Donald Trump made his splash in politics by falsely suggesting that Barack Obama wasn’t born in America. As president, Trump has stoked distrust of migrants, government employees, his political opponents, and our international allies. He has used distrust to expand federal power. It’s important to note that trust doesn’t mean agreement. We can disagree on issues and still trust each other to consider the facts, discuss them honestly, and work toward solutions. America’s founders, for example, differed about federal versus state power, individual liberties, slavery, and many other issues. But they trusted each other enough to create a new republic. Our current leaders would do well to consider their example. The world is very different than it was 250 years ago, but we face our own difficult challenges. We all want the United States to continue as a prosperous and peaceful nation. We need to cultivate trust in each other for that to happen.        

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Lee Hamilton, 94, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.