As a nation we face difficult problems at home and abroad. The challenges we face, however, are no more daunting than ones faced by past generations of Americans who lived through and overcame the Great Depression, world wars, the omnipresent threat of nuclear war and the systematic denial of basic civil rights to African Americans, among other tough problems.
What has traditionally sustained us through hard times has been a reservoir of trust in our government as well as a sense of optimism about the future. This foundational trust is what has eroded today, endangering the basic functioning of our democracy and preventing the reaching of the common ground that is needed to put solutions in place. To put it simply, we must restore the trust that gives us the hope essential to creating a better future.
Today, trust in our government and our politics is at historic lows. In fact, more than 6-in-10 Americans say they have “not too much or no confidence at all in the future of the U.S. political system,” according to Pew Research Center. About 2-in-3 Americans “say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics.” Similarly, more than half “always or often feel angry.” In contrast, only 1-in-10 “say they always or often feel hopeful about politics.”
Trust in the federal government is at an all-time low. Only 16% of Americans now “say they trust the federal government always or most of the time.” This distrust is not limited to politics and government. There is rising distrust in most of our major institutions and even each other, a series of polls show.
We know from experience that looking to new national leaders or Washington. DC alone to solve our trust problem will not work. Instead, we must look to each other to rebuild trust, beginning with taking responsibility as citizens to work to better our own communities. As Pamela Scott Johnson, provost at Spelman College, exclaimed at a recent forum The Citizen Service conducted at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, “We must expand our own definition of a neighbor and push people past their fears and into action.”
As Johnson and other forum participants noted, this takes knowledge. Specifically, it means enlisting people to learn about and embrace a new dimension of American citizenship — one that goes beyond the traditional roles of voter, spectator to one that embraces problem-solving — identifying evidence-based solutions and working toward adoption of those solutions with others whose ideology and partisan preferences we may not share.
New state laws giving citizens the power to access government policy details and present their own proposals to improve those policies at government meetings, combined with new technology that facilitates the search for solutions, have created the opportunity for this new and powerful dimension.
A team of more than 50 successful practitioners of government has developed a no-blame, pragmatic and problem-solving method that maximizes these new citizen powers. Early results are most encouraging. Citizens using this step-by-step method have already gained adoption of hundreds of local laws at an over 90% success rate.
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The time for talking about our country’s political breakdown is over. Citizens can now take action together on the common ground of practical problem solving in their own hometowns and in doing so, rebuild trust in each other and in our democracy. But to do so at a sufficient scale requires a society-wide response.
That is the mission of The Citizen Service, a citizen-driven national public service for all Americans. It is time for all of us to step-up to our full responsibilities as citizens, working together to restore trust, safeguard our democracy and create a better future.
Harry Pozycki is the founder of The Citizen Service and the author of “Citizen Power,” published by Rutgers University Press.
