Americans’ trust in institutions is weak and often divides along partisan lines. The only exception? Strong bipartisan support for small business.
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Small business has kept the trust of Democrats, Republicans and independents, the only such “institution” in the nation to have managed such a feat in this partisan age, according to a new Gallup poll.
Every other one of the 17 American institutions respondents were asked about this year scored below 50% in total confidence from Americans, reflecting broad and rising cynicism among the electorate. That list includes, in descending order of confidence: small business, the military, the police, higher education, organized religion, the medical system, banks, the presidency, the U.S. Supreme Court, public schools, organized labor, big tech companies, the criminal justice system, newspapers, big business, television news, and, with a paltry 9% of the public expressing high confidence, Congress.
Trust in institutions is distinct from trust in individual professions. While just 26% of Americans said they had high or a lot of confidence in the medical system, another Gallup poll, conducted last December, found that Americans consider nurses the most trustworthy and ethical professionals, with 75% saying they had high or very high honesty and ethics. Only three other categories–military veterans, medical doctors and pharmacists–got high or very high ratings from a majority of respondents.