Republican Trust in the DOJ Has Improved Significantly Since 2015

Trust in the Department of Justice (DOJ), overall, has been relatively flat. Republican support has increased while Democratic support has dropped.

Historically, Republicans Strongly Supported the FBI

Historically, Republicans have been conservative, supporting the police, military, FBI, defense, “law and order”, criminal justice and “black and white” law enforcement. While the DOJ and some other federal agencies have been staffed by left-leaning coastal elites, the FBI has been staffed by more conservative leaning individuals.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/fbi-donald-trump-base-230755

Overall Support for the FBI has Remained High, but has Become Polarized

Different survey questions produced different results, but the FBI is one of the most respected federal agencies.

Trump’s 2018 Attacks on the FBI Drastically Reduced Republican Support for the FBI (see above and below)

The Republican versus Democratic split widened.

https://www.vox.com/latest-news/2018/2/3/16968372/trump-fbi-republican-poll-confidence

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republican-confidence-in-the-fbi-has-dropped-since-2015_n_5a721bbbe4b09a544b5616a7

Republican’s Response to Trump’s Claims Were Severe

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/03/conservatives-fbi-trump-republicans-389076

Republicans Were Much Less Supportive of the FBI in 2019 versus the Democrats

Context: Americans’ Belief in or Trust of Institutions Has Been Declining for Decades

Huge 10% drop in the middle of George W Bush’s presidency. 5 institutions with 10% or greater drops in support.

Widespread further decline in support of “institutions” during the pandemic.

The broad decline continues in 2022. Can it continue?

I’m Very, Very, Very Scared

Trust and Distrust in America

538 has a similar article but refuses to link directly. Worth your time to query and copy.

“What Happens When Americans Don’t Trust Institutions?”

If only one-quarter of Americans trust in its basic institutions, how can we have democracy and capitalism and “western civilization”? If “everything is broken”, then we need a dictator or a revolution. Really? Really? Really?

I have to blame the 16 year-old me for some of this. In 1972, we were all opposed to “the man”, “the organization man”, “the establishment”, etc. We were children of the hard-won victory of democracy and capitalism against fascism and imperialism and communism. We believed in progress, science, growth and possibilities. We were skeptical about the Vietnam war, the military, McNamara and his whiz kids, General Curtis LeMay, big corporations, compromises, limitations, bureaucracy, bigness (small is beautiful), population growth, technology, etc. Many of us deeply believed in a romantic idealism or utopianism, making stodgy historical institutions so irrelevant.

Fast forward 50 years and I (we) possess a fundamentally conservative view, embracing the need/value of institutions and channeling our inner Edmund Burke to emphasize the value of the accumulated wisdom of society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

So, the overall decline in trust of American institutions is a real challenge. The decline in trust in the FBI is clearly (IMHO) a Trump driven result. This, too, is a real challenge to our democracy. Do we (I) really believe that the leadership and staff of the FBI have abandoned their democratic principles which we have lived and supported for almost 250 years? I don’t think so. But the decline in trust/belief in all institutions combined with the increasingly politically polarized view of individual institutions makes this a reasonable view for many of our fellow citizens. We have much, much work to do in order to preserve our institutions, government and society.