What Gives Republicans Faith in Government?
President Ronald Reagan was famous for espousing anti-government views. To this day, he is lionized by Republicans, who frequently quote his “less is more” attitudes towards government. Which makes it kind of ironic that when he was in office, Republican faith in government rose significantly. In fact, when you ask people whether they trust the government to do what it ought to do, their answers are strongly influenced by whether the person in the White House shares their political allegiance:
It also appears, according to recent trends, that Republican faith in government is much more volatile than that of Democrats. I’m sure that has a lot to do with how demonized the last two Democratic presidents have been, by Republican pundits. But interestingly, Democrats don’t seem to experience enormous increases in their faith in government when someone from their party is in office.
The world is an interesting place.