Despite all of President Obama‘s promises, despite all of his soaring rhetoric, a record number of Americans say they don’t trust the federal government to handle foreign policy issues competently.
With Obama set to address the nation on Wednesday night, trust in the nation’s elected leaders to deal effectively with issues overseas has fallen to just 43 percent, an all-time low — even lower than during the presidency of George W. Bush, according to Gallup.
The Gallup survey comes at a time when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist group that has overrun much of Iraq and Syria, continues its march across the Middle East and Moscow sets its sights on the West.
Trust in the Obama administration’s handling of foreign affairs declined by an impressive 17 points in 2013 as the the president considered launching military strikes in Syria. It wasn’t until Russia emerged as a mediator that Obama backed off the idea and his approval numbers suffered badly.
Americans say they support continued airstrikes on ISIS targets, according to several separate surveys, but they oppose the idea of U.S. combat troops being committed to the effort. Further, Americans say they also support increased economic sanctions against Russian interests, according to a Pew Research Center report.
But faith in the nation’s elected officials and their ability to address these and other overseas issues is fledgling, likely hastened by the president’s own careless remarks — most notably, stating in a press conference that he didn’t yet have a strategy for combating ISIS.
“The level of trust in the government to handle both domestic and international matters is nearly half what it was at the high point Gallup measured, shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks,” Gallup reported. “In October 2001, 83 percent trusted the government’s ability to deal with international problems and 77 percent trusted its ability to handle domestic ones.”
Going further back, the polling firm noted, “Gallup has never measured lower levels of trust in the federal government to handle pressing issues than now. That includes the Watergate era in 1974, when 51 percent of Americans trusted the government’s ability to handle domestic problems and 73 percent trusted its ability to deal with international problems, and also at the tail end of the Bush administration when his job approval ratings were consistently below 40 percent and frequently below 30 percent.”
This decline is remarkable, and a bit sad, considering Obama was swept into office in 2008 on the promise that he’d “change” Washington, D.C., and restore voters’ faith in the country’s governing institutions.
“When Washington doesn’t work, all its promises seem empty,” Obama said during his DNC acceptance speech in 2008. “If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it’s best to stop hoping and settle for what you already know. You understand that, in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same, old politics with the same, old players and expect a different result.”
He added: “You have shown what history teaches us, that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens — change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.”
Based on Obama’s dismal polling on issues both foreign and domestic, the American people may take him up on his suggestion this November and voice their displeasure with his administration and its allies at the polls.
