One unique theory for why Americans distrust Congress

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published 8 July 2021

"Over the past half century," said American Enterprise Institute scholar Yuval Levin in a recent testimony before the House Committee on the Modernization of Congress, "the American public has gone from extraordinary levels of confidence in our major institutions to striking levels of mistrust." Trust in Congress is particularly low, polling shows, and Levin posited a compelling explanation for at least some of that decline: Congress increasingly functions not as a useful means of governance but as a platform for its members to gain fame. It isn't "really asking for our trust," he said, "just for our attention":

Some members now seem to run for office less to be involved in legislative work and more to have a prominent platform in the culture war — to become more visible on cable news or on talk radio, to build a social media following, and to use their elected office as a platform to complain about the very institution they worked so hard to enter. They conceive of themselves, or at least present themselves, as outsiders speaking to the institution rather than as insiders working through the institution. And as a result, they incline to approach their colleagues (particularly those of the opposite party) as props in a dramatic morality tale rather than as fellow legislators with whom to negotiate, bargain, and cooperate. [Yuval Levin, via AEI]

This transformation of congressional culture is deeply detrimental to American politics, Levin said, calling for members to regain "a sense of themselves as insiders acting in the world through Congress — endowed by their office not just with a more prominent cultural platform but with the distinct powers and responsibilities (indeed, the distinct character) of legislators." The modernization committee, he advised, should "help members identify themselves more with the institution and its purpose, channel their ambition through it, and understand themselves as belonging to it, rather than standing on it to make themselves more visible."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.