Max Boot, noted anti Trump leftist, penned a column in The Washington Post, Faith in government powered Apollo 11. We don’t have that anymore, discussing the recent historical loss of faith in government. Believe it or not, he does present a few important insights in this article and we will briefly review those. As is also to be expected of an 21st century leftist, his judgement of the facts is distorted.

First, why do you think there is a difference in "faith in government" since 1969? The main reason is because government has gotten so much bigger and intrusive in our lives (political correctness, speech police, freedoms of speech religion and bearing arms constantly threatened), making lives worse instead of better (War on Poverty, welfare, education, energy, decline of our great cities ...) and failing at operation of its major programs (Healthcare, Medicare, Social Security, the post office ...). It's not hard to understand (assuming you are not a big government liberal Democrat or Socialist). Degrading the faith in government assists both sides as it turns out. It assists the right, who preach smaller government. It assists the right because they can attack those in power, they can isolate enemies to highlight and they can attack Capitalism and ideologies as the reason why government doesn't work. A couple of points he makes with realistic and accurate insight applied:

• Faith in government had dipped by the end of the 1960s — 62 percent in 1968, 54 percent in 1970 … That was certainly because of the protests and civil unrest of the 1960s, including all the examples he sites.
• Public confidence was just 36 percent after President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Obviously Watergate was a major negative for faith in government. Though a celebrated point in our history by the media and leftist Democrats. Why? Because destroying the faith of the people is a major necessary step in 'fundamentally transforming' America.
• There was a rise in support during the 1980s — but only into the 40-percent range. President Ronald Reagan had taken office proclaiming “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” ... his immediate success, ironically, had the opposite effect by showing that America wasn’t ungovernable. This absolutely confirms that people believed government wasn't working for the people and that Reagan was going to fix that - without expanding government intrusion and spending.
• Another irony: Confidence in government plummeted in the 1990s — as low as 19 percent in 1994 — even though this decade is now seen as the apogee of American power and prosperity. Presumably this curious fact can be explained by a combination of Newt Gingrich’s inveterate hostility toward government and President Bill Clinton’s scandals. This is Democrat and media propaganda about the 1990s. The budget was balanced in the late 1990s as a result of three things: 1. the Reagan economy. 2. President Clinton realizing that and doing nothing to harm it. 3. Republican Congress controlling spending and raising taxes only so much as to increase already exploding revenues from the almost 20 year booming economy!
• Faith in government rose again briefly after the 9/11 attacks; the only time since 1972 it exceeded 50 percent was in October 2001. Obvious!
• But the disasters of the George W. Bush presidency — the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, the financial crash — took their toll. By the time Bush left office in 2009, faith had fallen to 25 percent. It has never recovered — even though the economy did. Simple political propaganda here. The so called 'disasters' of the Bush presidency were political not actual, directed by the Democrat opposition and executed perfectly by the media assault on Bush. And, Bush did NOTHING to counter these attacks so they succeeded to drive down his popularity.
• Under President Barack Obama, the nation launched the longest economic expansion in its history. Revisionist history. Those years were the worst recovery in history! By design. It was not part of the political strategy for America to fully recover. Remember, we have to get use to <2% GDP growth! Lack of full recovery enables further intrusion of government and 'fundamentally transforming' America.
• Yet public confidence that the government in Washington would “do what is right,” “always” or “most of the time,” has fallen to just 17 percent today. Any doubt the current political environment in the US would instill confidence in any of is citizens. Especially when you watch only the politics of this month: attacking the July 4 holiday, talking down the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, aggressively criticizing the people of the country.

Faith in government is at all time lows and has declined since before the moon landing. It can return to historic highs, if government will only get back to the designs of the founding fathers and preserving life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Other intrusions are to be limited. More From The Washington Post: