Every summer, Gallup conducts an annual “Confidence in U.S. Institutions” survey. The 2021 results were recently released, revealing a slight dip in Americans’ confidence for most institutions since the 2020 survey, with one exception: confidence in the police actually rose. Take a look:
Based on the above chart, it would seem the decline in confidence in US institutions is modest and could be easily reversed in better times. In other words, nothing to write home about. But these figures are averages across all respondents and they obscure large partisan differences. For instance, 76% of Republicans/Republican Leaners indicated they had a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the police, compared to just 31% of their Democratic counterparts. Here’s more on the partisan breakdown:
What struck me even more than the Republican-Democrat gaps in confidence was the general lack of confidence in U.S. institutions expressed by partisans of both stripes. Not counting small business and the military, or the police if you’re Republican or the presidency if you’re a Democrat and Joe Biden is president.