Distrust of Government

Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene (h/t naked capitalism):

Nearly a decade ago, Alabama’s Gov. Bob Riley was supporting a measure that would have cut taxes for the less fortunate of the state’s population, and raised taxes for the more fortunate. The increased revenues that would have accrued as a result were intended for education.

The state Legislature passed the measure, which then had to be approved in a referendum vote by the citizens of Alabama. The state’s business community was in favor of the proposal, believing that better education was a key to Alabama’s future. A variety of groups -- some from outside the state -- were against it. After a contentious, three-month campaign on the so-called “tax and accountability” package, the measure was defeated resoundingly by a 2-to-1 vote.
This may be the saddest story of all those we’ve heard about state government over the last couple of decades. And here’s why: The people who would have most benefited -- the folks who would have paid less taxes for a better education -- came out against it. When we spoke with Riley a few months after the vote, he told us that the problem was that the citizens of Alabama simply didn’t trust the state, and so if state leaders were for it, they mistrusted it.
We bring this up now, because this tale powerfully demonstrates the importance of trust in government. That’s a commodity that appears to be increasingly in short supply. As academics Xiao Wang and Montgomery Van Wart wrote in a paper a few years ago, “The decline of trust in government since World War II is frequently considered one of the most important political problems of our time.”

This is definitely a serious problem, and one which seems to be exsperated by the right-wing's attempt to further undermine people's trust of government.  If government isn't working, I believe in trying to fix what's broken, not throw the whole thing out.  If we tried to eliminate things in the private sector which weren't working, we wouldn't have a financial system.  Unfortunately, in that example, we haven't tried to fix the problems either, we've just shoveled money in and let the management steal what we put in.  Building trust in government is a difficult undertaking, but it needs to be undertaken in a good faith, bipartisan manner.  Right now, I don't think Republicans will allow that.