In the Military We Trust?

Since 1975, Gallup has been conducting polls on US public Confidence in Institutions annually. This year, the poll was based on telephone interviews conducted July 8-11 with a random sample of 1,020 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S. For those who first see this kind of poll, the results are pretty depressing. Among the 16 categories of institutions, only three institutions (the military, small business, and the police) got more than 50% “quite a lot” of confidence score. Astonishingly, Congress ranks dead last this year with only 11% showed more than “quite a lot” of confidence, while 50% showed “very little” or none confidence. Remember they are the people we elected – talking about betrayal!

Interestingly, the military continues its long-standing run as the highest-rated U.S. institution. In fact, the military has been No. 1 in this list continuously since 1998, and has ranked No.1 or No. 2 almost every year since 1975. While Americans have decreasing confidence in the Administration and Congress, they forget who the real boss of the military is. Perhaps the real reason is that we are as naive as the military, or vice versa.