Posted on 12/12/2007 7:33:15 PM PST by neverdem
The public may not trust the very organizations it perceives as the most powerful. There is a distinct disconnect between trust and power in Washington, according to research released yesterday.
The AFL-CIO, followed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) were cited as the most powerful groups in town, according to a Harris Poll that asked respondents to gauge the influence of various organizations on Capitol Hill and beyond.
It was a close race. Eighty-four percent said the AFL-CIO wielded a "great deal" or a "fair amount of power"; the number was 83 percent for the NRA and 81 percent for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Environmental groups were among those at the bottom of the list. The organizations thought to have the least amount of power were the Sierra Club, followed by Moveon.org, Consumer Reports, the Nature Conservancy and Greenpeace.
Yet Consumer Reports was named the most trusted of the bunch, followed by the American Red Cross, AARP, the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The least trusted group was Moveon.org — 36 percent of the respondents said they had no trust whatsoever for the group, while a tepid 20 percent said they had "not very much" trust.
Next on the least trusted roster were AEI, the ACLU, the AFL-CIO and the NRA.
The reason for the power and trust disconnect appears to be all too human.
"Power is an authority issue; trust is an emotional issue. That is the dynamic at work here," said Robert R. Butterworth, a Los Angeles-based psychologist.
"You don't necessarily have to trust someone to know they're in charge. This is how we sometimes relate to authority. Trust, however..."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
When are we going to finally admit that this whole idea of democracy is misguided?
People are just too stupid to govern themselves.
That's why Walt Disney created Pluto and his Plutocracy.
I’m too stupid to even get the reference. I shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Let somebody else make the decisions for me.
A plutocracy is a government run by the elite, rich people in society. I like my idea where the government is run by Pluto (the exuberantly goofy cartoon dog) and we could still call it, appropriately, a Plutocracy.
The people with the most power are those we pay our utility and service bills to. Taxes can be deferred and disputed but you can’t argue with the sheer power of having your electricity or water cut off.
Your “idea” is actually reality. Goofballs are running the country.
If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it? — Ben Franklin
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. — John Adams
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