By Chris Fitzsimon
At first glance, headlines about voters believing politicians are corrupt are not surprising considering the recent coverage of the state and federal investigations of former Gov. Mike Easley and the daily venom about government from Rush Limbaugh and his fellow political shock jocks on the right.
New surveys from Public Policy Polling (PPP) and the Elon University Poll do find significant distrust of political leaders. The PPP poll finds that a plurality of North Carolinians believe both Democrats and Republicans are corrupt and that political corruption has increased in the last 25 years.
The Elon Poll is even more disturbing, with findings that 73 percent of people in the state believe corruption is common among elected officials and 65 percent say that people in elected office are more concerned with their own interests than the public interest.
The findings of both surveys prompted the usual reaction from establishment political observers, lamenting the state of the political world, while anti-government zealots were rubbing their hands together planning to use the results in their crusades.
But as always with polls, the broader context and some of the findings that didn’t make the headlines are worth considering. The Elon poll finds that roughly 60 percent of North Carolinians approve of the job their individual legislators are doing, so they must not think everybody is corrupt.
Just over 70 percent of those surveyed in the Elon Poll say they trust the government in Raleigh to do what is in the public interest some or all of the time, while just 24 percent trust state government to do what’s right none or very little of the time.
Neither poll defines corruption, but it’s a safe bet that people associate it with the kind of criminal behavior that helped send former House Speaker Jim Black to federal prison, taking cash in paper bags to pay another legislator for a vote.
But 87 percent of those surveyed in the Elon Poll say that campaign contributions influence elected officials at least some and 55 percent say the money influences them a lot. That’s another definition of corruption, a legal kind, with lawmakers pleasing the people who give them big contributions or hold fundraisers at their country clubs.
That’s not only legal in the current system of financing campaigns, it is common practice, the way the system works. But the anti-government zealots virulently oppose using public money for campaigns instead of the private money that comes with all the strings attached.
They complain every day that government is corrupt, but resist any effort to change the system of paying for campaigns that the public realizes is a stacked deck, legal corruption that increases cynicism about elected officials. The crowd on the right likes it that way. They want people to distrust the government they are trying to dismantle.
Then there is the context. Most people don’t trust much in these days of economic anxiety and hardship. A recent Gallup Poll found than less than half of Americans have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in the media to report the news fairly and accurately.
A survey last year by Gallup found that almost 70 percent of the people want corporations to have less influence and a Pew survey earlier this year found a majority of Americans do not believe corporations strike a fair balance between making money and serving the public interest.
People are angry and afraid and aren’t sure anybody or any institution is looking out for their best interests. Throw in stories of governors involved in questionable land deals or rushing off to Argentina, and members of Congress hiding bribe money in a freezer, and of course people are skeptical and frustrated.
They will be until they are not as worried about their jobs, if they have one, or how to afford their mortgage payments next month.
But unrest and anxiety are not the same as abandoning support for the government they elect. They still have faith in the individual men and women who represent them in Raleigh and Washington.
Let’s ferret out the corruption and get rid of the few dishonest politicians. Change the campaign-finance system that makes fair elections and honest governing more difficult. And don’t let the loud anti-government minority stand in the way of public solutions and investments that address the frustration of many families.
And keep the poll numbers in context.
Chris Fitzsimon is the executive director of N.C. Policy Watch.