There’s been a growing disdain for the government. Only 20% of people in the United States have faith that their politicians in DC have their best interest in mind, according to a 2022 study by the Pew Research Center. In the early 2000s, that number was as high as 54%. This mistrust in government isn’t new. Rebellion is a staple of American Culture.

In 1765, Britain’s parliament passed the Stamp Act which placed a tax on paper goods from playing cards to legal documents, limited trials by jury and extended the reach of vice-admiralty courts. Colonists discovered to be informants were doused in tar and covered in feathers as punishment for their betrayal. By 1770, 13 known individuals were tarred and feathered across five of the 13 colonies. The ongoing fight led the colonists to declare their independence from the British crown.

In recent years, the Black Lives Matter movement brought about an uprising against unfair policing practices. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, peaceful protests were seen across the nation. In Minneapolis, where his death occurred, protesters followed the United States’ Founding Fathers’ footsteps by storming the police station and setting it ablaze.

Lies have led campaign trails for decades. Every president runs on the promise of “X, Y and Z”, but when elected they often forget the pledges offered to the American people. In the 1960 election, John F. Kennedy ran on a fear-based campaign. He claimed the States were tragically behind on missile manufacturing when compared to the Soviet Union. After he won the election, the secretary of defense McNamara admitted there was no missile gap. With no internet and only three commercial TV channels, fact checking was far more difficult than it is today.

Part of Nixon’s 1968 campaign was to lower government spending. He identified the budget needed to be cut down in order to avoid an economic crisis, unemployment needed to decrease, and the rate of inflation needed to be decelerated. The federal budget before Nixon’s election in 1967 was $112.8 billion; by 1971 the budget reached $200.8 billion. Between those same years, the unemployment rate rose from 3.8% to 6%. The rate of inflation in 1967 was 3.08% and rose to 5.84% by 1971.

During his 2016 campaign run, Trump made a promise to invest in America’s infrastructure. He was going to incentivize coal mining productions and invest in the nation’s infrastructure. Between 2017 and 2018 coal mining jobs dropped 15%. Though the price of coal stayed at $35 a per ton, production was 706 million tons which is a far drop from 992 million tons in 2014. During Trump’s campaign he promised a $1 trillion infrastructure budget to rebuild the roads, highways and transit systems across the nation and create jobs along the way. The budget quickly deteriorated to $200 billion, and he requested assistance from private investors, state and city governments to come up with the remaining $800 billion.

Campaign lies continue to present day. During his election run, Joe Biden discussed Donald Trump’s misconduct during the spread of COVID-19 and told his constituents that he could get COVID-19 under control. The reality is no one had any idea what to do about the virus. The biggest spike in COVID-19 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, happened from late December to early February of 2022, and continued causing problems through the summer.

Corruption can continue long after the campaign trail. In March of 2022, Jeff Fortenberry resigned from his position in congress. During a 2016 fundraiser in L.A. a man named Toufic Baaklini handed the host, Dr. Ayoub, a sack of $30,000 in cash. He told Dr. Ayoub to donate to Fortenberry’s campaign through his friends and family. During the trial, prosecutor Buxton played a phone call from 2018 of Dr. Ayoub in which he told the congressman three times the money was donated through straw men. Baaklini admitted he was given the money by Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury. In the US, it is illegal for politicians to receive donations from foreign parties. Last year, a jury found Fortenberry guilty of lying to federal investigators and trying to hide illegal campaign donations. He will face up to five years in prison for each of his three felonies.

A long track record of deception from the politicians in America, regardless of party, has made blind faith from the American people an unrealistic expectation. The distrust that is felt by citizens towards their government keeps politicians in check.