Shocker – Americans Don’t Trust Politicians

It’s hard being a politician…. I mean sure, you get to be part of CHANGING THE WORLD. And if you are say the “President of the United States”, then there are celebrities flocking to celebrate your 50th birthday party; and you get your own private plane.

But, if you are just a run-of-the-mill politician, then right in the middle of attempting that world-changing thing, you find blog posts cursing your name and uncovering every misstep you made on your path to adulthood. Local comedians are starting and ending jokes at your expense. And at the end of it all, you don’t get the opportunity to sing with B.B. King and Mick Jagger.

And now, worse than the lack of perks, even America appears to be turning its back on you. According to a recent VeraQuest omnibus poll, nearly three-quarters of Americans judge politicians to be “mostly corrupt” (74%) and believe politicians today aren’t working that hard or doing a very good job for regular folks like them (75%).

So perks aside, it’s easy to understand why many of the good guys find the journey stressful or perhaps don’t even join the race to begin with.

Truth be told, most Americans (68%) believe they too would fail if they had to do the job of President. Men (especially young men) are slightly more likely than other demographic groups to think they could handle the responsibility, but even most young men feel like they would probably collapse under the pressure.

So all that said, it’s a lot easier (and more fun) to sit on the sidelines and judge the behavior …. And in our mock game of Armchair Jury, many Americans said that any politician who exercised the following “lapses-in-judgment,” should lose his/her job and hit the unemployment line:

It appears that America draws some gray-ish line between those transgressions that are illegal and those that may be legal yet unethical. How do you feel? Do you distinguish between the criminal and the immoral where politicians are considered? Do you believe that a politician should step down from his position if he/she transgresses as above? What about a president of a company? Or an athlete? Or a teacher?