Where's the Trust?

It isn’t news that a majority of Americans distrust Washington. A Pew survey found this year that only 22% trusted Washington most of the time. "Only twice since the 1950s has public skepticism dipped this deeply — from 1992 to 1995 during which time it hit 17 percent, and 1978 to 1980, bottoming out at 25 percent. The nation was going through economic struggles during both of those periods." (Name those presidents, anyone?)

Recently, I was surprised to learn that my rather conservative English relatives were happy that Obama was elected President. I don’t know when they stopped liking Bush, or if they ever did. How is it that someone who speaks well gets a leg-up on the trust factor? Doesn’t anyone ever learn that clever, glib, clean and articulate (umm, sorry, channeling Biden there) absolutely do not convey anything related to trustworthiness? So, back to the English relatives and their opinion… it doesn’t matter at all what the general population of another country thinks of our president. It DOES matter whether foreign leaders believe they can trust our American “leadership” such that it is.

How can you tell someone is lying? (Insert “lips are moving” joke here). I checked it out through a handy-dandy web search and I suggest you try it! Anyway, I did find these two useful items:

Something Sounds Fishy – 2,400 page bills, protecting the New Black Panthers, singling out AZ’s immigration enforcement

Overly Defensive (usually shifts blame) - Blame GOP for lack of immigration progress,
blame stupid public for not understanding the healthcare bill, and a myriad of inherited crises.

Perhaps there are some folks in Washington who care about deficits, be they budget deficits or trust deficits. Here are a few recommendations for working on the latter: do what you say; never lie; tell the truth; be competent; operate with a strong moral ethic; be fair and don’t apply double standards.

Looks like some folks have some serious work to do……. just saying.

Julie Ranson, wife and mother of three, lives and teaches in Virginia.