Poll: Americans' trust in Congress at record low

Trust in the “men and women in political life in this country who either hold or are running for public office” has dropped to an all-time low of 49% this year, after bumping up to 66% in the middle of the 2008 presidential election campaign. At points in the 1970s, about two-thirds of Americans reported having a great deal or fair amount of trust in the men and women in politics, and this had never been below the majority level until now.

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By contrast, there has been a consistently high level of trust in “the American people as a whole when it comes to making judgments under our democratic system about the issues facing our country” over the last several decades, albeit it with a slight downward drift in recent years. The current trust level of 73% is up slightly from a few years ago, but remains below the all-time high of 86% in 1976.

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