Conspiracy theories apart we have seen a steep decline in trust in our nation.
The voter
We can see this lack of trust pretty clearly in the approval ratings, hell we voted for these people and yet we dislike them intensely.
Yet next time around we will vote for most of them again. Either we are in a serious state of denial or we have just given up.
The government.
We can see the lack of trust via the merciless pursuit of whistle blowers and the panic filled legislation they have produced over the last decade to the point when indiscriminate spying on every American is justifiable in their eyes.
Secrecy
When you justify unspecific and unjustified monitoring of the population in general by; "if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear" it is long past time to be concerned.
Dark money
If those funding a campaign don't want their names divulged, when our federal government has no interest in regulating its flow, trust goes out the window.
Unlike their counterparts in Congress, state lawmakers around the country are speeding ahead with efforts to reform how campaigns are funded and to address the flow of dark money into elections
"Dark money has brought great divisiveness to the election process," Peterson said. "Locals have no idea who is influencing their politicians and their government officials, so today we're going to put the power back into the democratic process and let the people answer this question for us."
When voters have lost faith in their representatives.
When the government becomes a control freak.
When elections are bought and sold in secrecy.
Perhaps it is time to step back and ask
Just where the hell are we headed.
Campaign finance reform would allow our elected officials to be held more accountable as it would be more economically feasible to challenge them in an election.
A reversal of power needs to take place, we need to control our own government rather than our government control us without accountability.
The media should be playing a role in this balancing act, sadly their participation seems all bar a few voices to be more politically expedient than investigative. More how to raise revenue than to actually search for the truth.
Democracy depends upon trust, and there seems to be precious little of that.