Image of federal government at all time low

Americans have had their fill of hope and change.

From Commentary:

According to a new Gallup survey, the image of the federal government is at an all-time low.

According to the poll, Americans view the computer industry the most positively and the federal government the least positively when asked to rate 25 business and industry sectors.

The federal government has been near the bottom of the list in previous years, Gallup reports, but is at the absolute bottom this year for the first time, displacing the oil and gas industry. Only 17 percent of Americans have a positive view of the federal government while 63 percent have a negative image, a staggering 46-point gap. Real estate, health care, banking, and the legal field all rank above the federal government. The images of the federal government and the real estate industry have dropped the most during the past decade, with the percentage of Americans rating the government positively has declined 24 points since 2003, when George W. Bush was president.

There are a number of (tentative) conclusions that might be drawn from this finding, including this one: when liberals are in charge of government, confidence in it tends to collapse. That happened with Jimmy Carter​, and it’s happening again with Barack Obama​. (Bill Clinton succeeded most often when he governed more as a conservative than a liberal. See welfare reform and the 1997 budget agreement for more.)

Illegal industries, such as narcotics dealing and prostitution, were not included in the survey. If they were, would they have scored better than the feds?

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