America's respect for politicians has been on the decline.
According to the Pew Research Center, about 73% of the public trusted the government in 1958. Now, in 2024, that average has dropped to 22%. This dissatisfaction comes from controversial government decision-making and how young people view older politicians, students on campus said.
"With our politicians aging out from the '80s and '90s until about now ... we see a lot of these issues that are moving at a rapid pace not get brought about in policy and legislation at an effective rate that catches up with the times," said Carson Carpenter, a senior studying political science and the president of College Republicans at ASU.
He said young voters see politicians who take advantage of their political office or participate ineffectively in government, and this can lower the voting population's respect for the system as a whole.
He said this is also seen today with current issues such as Trump's attempted assassination, Harris replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee without a primary, and the federal response to global events like natural disasters.
Carpenter said because of events like this, respect for politicians this year "is at an all-time low." But he also said people may have a higher regard for the Republican Party because of Trump and Vance’s calls for "unity in the country and empathy between the two party lines."
On the other hand, Zoë Blocher-Rubin, a junior studying philosophy and political science and an officer in Young Democrats at ASU, said her respect has actually grown for the Democratic Party.
After Tim Walz visited ASU earlier this semester, she said, "The familiarity and the competency that the candidates (Harris and Walz) were showing gave me a lot of trust in this ticket."
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Both Carpenter and Blocher-Rubin said people's respect for politicians is often influenced by how politicians treat each other. One of the formative moments for this was at the vice presidential debate last week.
"It was kind of a return to civil discourse that we necessarily haven't gotten to see with the two major candidates in a while," Carpenter said.
Blocher-Rubin said since televised debates get high viewership, people's impressions of the political scene are realized during these events.
"How they approach their own political candidates can have a huge impact on how their supporters approach other people who politically disagree with them," Blocher-Rubin said.
Despite the civility in the recent vice presidential debate, Blocher-Rubin said people are still not as open to others with different political views.
"People are pretty willing to express strong opinions one way or the other, even if it is a little bit demeaning towards the other candidate or people who may support that candidate," Blocher-Rubin said.
Blocher-Rubin also said a lack of respectful discourse can be attributed to having presidents who are willing to openly disrespect their political counterparts or other civilians, as it sets the precedent that, if "the highest office of the nation is accepting this," then so can everyone else.
A Pew Research Center study published on July 11 found that 87% of registered voters said the 2024 presidential campaigns of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump did not make them feel proud about their country. This study came 14 days after the first presidential debate on CNN for the 2024 November election.
"Because we associate policies and moralities and beliefs with certain parties and because all those make up a person, we associate that with that person, and we already have a preconceived notion of who they are," said JL Grossman, a freshman studying political science.
Carpenter also said disrespect for others with political differences can stem from people being more willing to express their dissatisfaction with the government.
"A lot of people will give their two cents on how issues should be solved, and that's where the disagreement starts," Carpenter said. "That's where the polarization starts."
However, Carpenter also said a shared distrust of the government can unify people.
"We're seeing that a lot of these issues are affecting students on a more personal level, so I see a lot more students having respectful discourse and not just going to overarching emotional arguments at every turn," Carpenter said.
While the American population's respect for politicians and the government has been on the decline for years, Carpenter said there could be solutions.
"With each candidate, they could start laying out a policy of how they're going to affect Generation Z, and then they can also lay out who they're going to employ to make sure that they hear the voices of Generation Z," Carpenter said.
Blocher-Rubin said both campaigns have also tried to regain the interest and respect of Gen Z voters by using endorsements from public figures who are not politicians. Carson said while he has seen this strategy, he does not think it will be effective in persuading voters.
READ MORE: Gen Z’s ‘brat summer’: How young voters are impacting presidential campaigns
Blocher-Rubin said candidates have been using "media platforms where they reach people who really couldn't care less," such as TikTok, podcasts or interviews with celebrities. This has been seen recently with Kamala Harris' interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, as well as Trump's interview with Logan Paul on IMPAULSIVE.
In the end, Grossman said that the only way for people to respect politicians and each other more is for the politicians themselves to change.
"Once the candidates start to become less radical, then the population can become less radical," he said.
Edited by George Headley, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at pkfung@asu.edu and follow @FungPippa on X.
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Pippa is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication with minors in political science and German. This is her second semester with The State Press. She has also worked at Blaze Radio and the Los Alamos National Lab.
