Americans today aren’t losing faith in government’s ability to execute; they’re losing faith in its ability to listen.
“You can break it down and be more specific than that, though, where the real challenge is… truly feeling represented, that the democratic system is taking my priorities, aggregating them up with the people around me, and really representing them in the decision making process,” said Michael Dimock, President of Pew Research Center.
This disconnect between citizens and institutions is widespread. “In the US, you’d have maybe 20% who say, or less, that the government listens to people like me, that my views are reflected in the decisions that are made in the government.” That alienation isn’t rooted in a desire for less government: “It’s not that people don’t want a government to take action and to represent them. It’s that they really don’t believe that that representational link is happening.”
Why is this happening? Dimock is blunt: follow the money. “People will tell you, if you ask what they’re doubtful about… that money has an undue influence… They see political leaders spending more time engaging in the process of fundraising and being engaged with those donor classes than they are really engaging with people like them. And they see that.”
And it goes beyond money. “There’s frustration with redistricting, there’s frustration with the bipartisan nature of American politics that most Americans tell you that neither party really reflects their views, and yet they’re offered only those two choices in any given election.”
Many of these issues are structural and hard to fix. “The Supreme Court has said the money issue is in the Constitution, right? It’s speech… [and] the fundamentals of our party system are rooted in a first past the post… majority rule system… but the frustration is layered.”
Yet despite this dissatisfaction, Americans remain trapped by fear of worse alternatives. “We as a country would have to be willing to reimagine our whole system of representation and people… want to do that, but what they’re more afraid of is that the alternative would be worse.” For now, Dimock says, “the stalemate feels less scary than changing the rules and an uncertainty that you could even lose worse.”
He notes that frustration-fueled support for disruption in 2016—and continues today. “There is a desire to see a shake up of a lot of the assumptions by which our systems work… The idea of forcing a reckoning… is appealing to many people.”
However, early signs of chaos are causing unease, even among supporters. “Survey research… suggests that people are a little anxious… that it seems to be being done without as much of a plan… that there’s a little bit more chaos than maybe they had signed up for.”
Compounding the issue is the fragmented media environment. “The fragmentation of the media ecosystem is one of the biggest trends out there… that sense that you can follow this feed or that feed… and you may be getting a very different lens… constructing potentially somewhat different interpretations… or even realities.”
To understand these divergent realities, Dimock’s team is increasingly using AI. “AI can do a great job of summarizing what’s happening in all those different conversational channels and giving you that opportunity to better understand what people are absorbing.”
The result? Americans are more informed than ever—and more divided.
Watch my full conversation below.
