Post-Partisan Forum: The Midterms Say More About Lack of Trust

Trust in the federal government has collapsed — only 27% of Americans trust it to do the right thing, 60% say its effect on people like them is negative, and 72% call it corrupt. That crisis, not party loyalty, may be the real story of this election year.

The conventional read is a horse race: Democrats now hold an 8- to 14-point lead on the generic ballot, a reversal from the even split in Nov 2024, putting once-safe red states like Texas, Georgia, and Kansas in play. Pollsters point to voter anger over cost-of-living — food, gas, mortgages, health premiums. But swings this big, this fast, look less like a party realignment and more like voters ping-ponging between whoever might actually help them.

If neither party has earned lasting trust, maybe the fix isn't picking a side — it's naming the basic services government owes people, clearly enough that any party could be held to delivering them. This month's forum will use a recent NYTimes chart collection, "Broken Promises," to map what Americans actually want from government — and to look for a common core of services Red and Blue could both support. What we discover could be a new basis for bipartisanship: not among politicians, but among voters.

If you'd like to "read ahead" for this discussion, check out the materials posted at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IB9XkD1VzZcSrOCWYZ-bCCeqIl0B3u1R?usp=sharing