A Vote of No Confidence

It's perhaps one of the great ironies of the Obama era that now, ABC News is reporting that confidence in government has fallen to a new low when comparing the last 35 or so years

(that would be 1976, in the wake of Watergate). Wasn't this supposed to be the time when recession-weary Americans embraced bigger, activist government?

Think about this. What ABC's report means is that Americans are less confident in their government than they were even in the waning days of (wait for it!) the Jimmy Carter presidency . . . or the much-maligned George W. Bush's.

Obviously, President Obama brought with him to The White House an outsized conviction in his own persuasive abilities and the efficacy of government. But as Americans have been given a crash course on the meaning of hope-and-change, Big Government Style, they are reaching the sensible conclusion that perhaps it makes sense for government to do less, because what it does (for the most part, with obvious exceptions like the military) is done rather poorly.