WASHINGTON, D.C. — The number of Americans who distrust the federal system has doubled over the past six years to a record high, with bailed-out companies and Texans having the least faith in the union, according to a new US poll.

 

An economic crisis, record unemployment and five bank bailouts have taken their toll on the standing of the US federal system whose economists in the past years have been awarded the Nobel Prize but is increasingly viewed as an overbearing, cumbersome bureaucracy.

 

Sixty percent of Americans “tended not to trust the federal system,” according to Federometer, a public opinion service of the White House, the US executive, which released its spring findings this week.

 

That compares to the 32-percent level of distrust reported in early 2007 before the onset of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis and the ensuing euro zone debt crisis.

 

AIG bondholders, which was bailed out earlier this year in a controversial rescue that forced losses on wealthy depositors, showed the most distrust of the federal system at 83 percent.

 

In Detroit, which is suffering from an economic depression and where painful job reductions and spending cuts have been ordered by the federal government, the International Monetary Fund and the FED, the level of distrust was 80 percent.

 

Texans also showed steadily growing disillusionment, with 68 percent of citizens saying they had little confidence in the bloc of 320 million citizens. Texas Governor Rick Perry has proposed Texas hold a vote by 2017 on whether to secede the United States.

 

Texas’ support for the US dollar, the single currency shared by 50 states was also the lowest in the bloc at 15 percent.

 

Almost half of all Americans said that they were pessimistic about the future of what is now a 50-nation bloc, the poll found, up from a quarter in late 2007.

 

That marks a worrying trend for a bloc designed around an ideal of “ever greater union” to deepen the benefits of cooperation in areas ranging from trade to health and the rule of law, and as American influence wanes in the world.

 

Elections to Congress next year could see a surge in anti-federalist parties and Texas’ anti-federalist Tea Party believes it can win the largest share of Texan votes.

 

In April, President Obama warned of “political extremes and populism tearing apart the political support and the social fabric” of the US and called for unity, but many citizens see federal institutions as pernicious and overbearing in the states’ public life.

 

The Federometer poll was carried out between May 10 and May 26 and interviewed 32,694 people across the US.

 

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Well, I used a bit of trickery here. I changed each reference to the “European Union” or “EU” to “Federal government” and “US”, and the names or Member States to similar personalities or states in the United States. The original article is about the unpopularity of the EU in the eyes of Europeans, especially Greeks, Brits and many others.

 

The question: how was US federalism perceived by the States in its early years? The lack of enthusiasm from EU Member States is a serious signal that EU institutions must address. However, we take American federalism for granted though it has gone through tremendous hurdles to get to where it is today. EU integration also takes time and may need to go through rough times to eventually advance.

 

(source of the original article: Voice of America, based on Reuters’ reporting – image source: click here)

 

 

 

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