Why Did Confidence in Government Decline from 1968-1980?

Why Did Confidence in Government Decline from 1968-1980?

There are many factors that caused people to lose confidence in the government from the years 1968-1980. Throughout these years, many changes occurred in presidency and the political atmosphere, which all impacted the amount of confidence felt towards the government at the time. These factors included the media, scandals surrounding the government and mishandling of events. To a greater extent, the media played the most important factor as to why confidence in the government declined due to the media becoming more accessible and the media uncovering more government deceptions.

The media was a huge factor as to why the American people lost confidence in the government from the years 1968-1980. The media’s attitude towards politics changed from explaining policies under Roosevelt’s presidency to uncovering government deceptions and reporting political scandals such as the Watergate Scandal in 1971. The media’s new relationships with the President and the government led to increased negative views of the government, which in turn led to a decline in confidence in the government. Additionally, more people had access to the media than in earlier years, which meant that more people were influenced by the media’s views on political issues. The media’s impact is a strong reason as to why the confidence in government declined as the media were so focused on showing the “true side of the US government” that inevitably the American people would lose confidence in the government as the media’s influence was too strong to ignore.

Another reason as to why confidence in government declined was political scandals. The Watergate Scandal (1972-74) showed that the government had been lying to the American people and that the White House and President Nixon were not only guilty of burglary, but also surveillance of political opponents. Nixon was seen swearing and appeared to be suspicious of everyone. The Watergate Scandal was a huge shock to the American people and showed that the President wasn’t who he had appeared to be. This was a strong reason as to why the American people lost confidence in the government as it became clear that the White House were perfectly happy to lie to the American public. However, the media played an important role in this and arguably the Watergate Scandal and other political scandals would have never influenced the confidence in the American government if the media hadn’t investigated them and reported on them in the first place. Therefore, the media was a much more important factor as to why people lost confidence in the American government during this time.