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A new poll released by the Harvard Institute of Politics confirms that most Millennials do NOT trust Congress or the federal government. Their feelings on law enforcement were split approximately down the middle.
Millennials don’t trust the federal government, the media, or the American justice system, according to an annual poll from the Harvard Institute of Politics (IOP). IOP issued the results of its annual poll gauging Millennials’ attitudes toward current political topics on April 29.
Congress consistently receives low approval ratings and 83 percent of Democrat and Republican Millennials polled do not trust Congress. John Della Volpe, IOP’s director of polling, attributes this to the disconnect between politicians and Millennials.
“Millennials are on a completely different page than most politicians in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “This is a more cynical generation when it comes to political institutions.”
On law enforcement and race relations:
Law enforcement and race relations have become a prominent issue nationally in the wake of events in Ferguson, Missouri and nationally prominent deaths of black men at the hands of police. The survey results indicate Millennials’ confidence in the justice system is evenly divided: 49 percent claimed the current system is unfair, while another 49 percent said the system is fair.
The responses were deeply divided among racial lines—55 percent of young whites had assurance in the fairness of the justice system, in comparison to 31 percent of young African-Americans. Likewise, the poll revealed that a third of black Millennials claim they never trust their local police department and 46 percent said that they trust it “some of the time.”
Read more specifics about the poll findings here.
