By Granite State Report
At a time when faith in American democracy should be its strongest—when information flows freely, elections are technologically advanced, and citizens can mobilize within minutes—the United States finds itself in quiet democratic decline. According to Pew Research Center’s 2018 study, “The Public, the Political System, and American Democracy,” the very design and structure of the nation’s government are no longer trusted by most Americans. Sixty-one percent said the system “needs significant changes.” Nearly a fifth said it should be rebuilt entirely.
Pew’s data paints a portrait of a republic struggling to believe its own mythology. Eighty-four percent of respondents said it is “very important” that rights and freedoms are respected—but less than half believed the country actually does so. Only one in five Americans said elected officials are “respected by other countries.” A majority described political discourse as “unruly” and “disrespectful.” Even among those who celebrate American ideals, the consensus is that practice has fallen dangerously behind principle.
The Design Flaw No One Admits
At the core of this democratic malaise lies an institutional problem. The United States’ 18th-century system of representation—ingenious for its time—has ossified into something incapable of meeting 21st-century expectations. Pew’s survey respondents overwhelmingly supported fundamental democratic values: transparency, equal rights, the rule of law. Yet only 47 percent believed elected officials serve the public interest; just 25 percent said the tone of national political debate is respectful.
The data suggests a widespread recognition that America’s political hardware—the Electoral College, gerrymandered districts, Senate malapportionment—no longer matches its democratic software. Pew found that 55 percent of Americans favored amending the Constitution so that the presidency would be decided by popular vote. This is not a partisan wish but a structural cry: the electorate feels alienated from its own institutions.
Political theorists call this “procedural disillusionment”—the belief that the rules themselves have become the problem. And in the United States, that disillusionment now crosses party lines. Pew’s findings showed that while 72 percent of Republicans thought democracy was working at least somewhat well, nearly half admitted it needed major reforms. Democrats, meanwhile, expressed near-universal skepticism of institutional fairness, especially regarding campaign finance and media independence.
The Age of Distrust
The architecture of mistrust extends far beyond Washington. Pew’s report revealed a striking split between local and national trust: 67 percent of Americans trusted their local government, compared with only 35 percent who trusted the federal one. This gap reveals something fundamental about the American psyche—an instinctive belief that democracy works best when it is closest to the people.
New Hampshire, with its fiercely independent towns and accessible state government, offers a living counterexample to the national trend. The “Live Free or Die” ethos is not simply rhetorical here; it’s civic. The state’s 400-member House of Representatives, one of the world’s largest, allows citizens a level of proximity to power unimaginable in Washington. Yet even here, surveys show creeping disillusionment. Voter turnout in off-year elections is declining, and local journalists warn of increasing polarization in town meetings and school board politics.
Polarization as Political Currency
If distrust is the oxygen of decline, polarization is its flame. Pew’s 2018 report found that partisan identity has become the dominant axis of American self-understanding. Nearly 60 percent of highly engaged Democrats and Republicans said members of the opposing party were “immoral.” This moralization of political difference has transformed debate into warfare.
Among highly engaged Americans, partisan hostility correlated directly with political activity. Those who voted, donated, and posted most frequently were also those least likely to believe in compromise. Pew’s visualization on page 33 showed a chilling pattern: the more politically active someone is, the less they trust the independence of the press and the fairness of government.
Democracy requires opponents to see each other as legitimate participants in a shared experiment. When each side views the other as an existential threat, democracy ceases to be a process and becomes a battlefield.
The Civic Literacy Crisis
No democracy can outlive the ignorance of its citizens. Pew’s report noted a disturbing erosion of civic knowledge. While most Americans correctly identified freedoms protected by the First Amendment, fewer than half could explain the structure of Congress, name their representatives, or describe how a bill becomes law. This ignorance is not accidental; it is the predictable outcome of decades of educational neglect.
Civic education has been stripped from many state curricula. News organizations, once educators by proxy, have been hollowed out by digital economics. Local newspapers—the very institutions that once taught citizens how democracy functions—are closing at record rates. A University of North Carolina study found that more than 2,900 local newspapers have disappeared since 2004, leaving “news deserts” across the country. New Hampshire has lost several weeklies and small-town papers in the past decade, and with them, the connective tissue of local accountability.
Structural Corruption: The Invisible Hand on the Scales
Pew’s data reflects not just frustration but recognition of corruption as systemic, not incidental. Majorities in both parties said “big money” has too much influence on politics. Fewer than 20 percent believed that campaign donors get “fairly equal attention” compared to average citizens. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision of 2010, which lifted restrictions on corporate political spending, looms large in this disillusionment.
In New Hampshire, the influence of money manifests subtly: out-of-state PACs pour funds into local races, while lobbyists from national industries—energy, pharmaceuticals, education tech—quietly shape legislation. The perception that public policy is for sale corrodes civic faith more efficiently than any scandal.
A growing number of reformers advocate for public financing of campaigns or “democracy vouchers,” where citizens allocate public funds to candidates of their choice. These models, tested in Seattle and Maine, could reorient incentives away from donor dependence. But structural reform faces fierce resistance from those who benefit from opacity.
The Myth of the Informed Voter
The American electorate often imagines itself as sovereign. Yet Pew’s study exposes how manipulated and fragmented the information environment has become. Eighty-one percent of respondents said fake news is a major problem. A majority said it makes it “harder to know what’s true.” That confusion benefits those in power, who thrive in the fog of uncertainty.
The internet promised democratization of information. Instead, it has delivered a hall of mirrors. Algorithms amplify outrage; partisanship becomes a product. What Pew calls “the collapse of shared facts” is perhaps the single most existential threat to democratic governance. A citizenry that cannot agree on what is real cannot deliberate about what is right.
When Democracy Becomes Theater
Pew’s report found that just 25 percent of Americans believe political debate in the U.S. is respectful. Public discourse has become performative, a spectacle for viral consumption rather than genuine persuasion. Politicians curate outrage for clicks; citizens respond with hashtags rather than organizing. The Founders designed deliberative institutions—the Senate, town meetings—to slow decision-making. Social media has done the opposite, accelerating tribal instinct to the speed of dopamine.
Democracy survives not through agreement but through procedure. When the procedures are disrespected, the disagreements turn lethal. Pew’s data suggests that Americans now see democracy less as a sacred system and more as a dysfunctional family argument—endless, loud, and unresolved.
The New Hampshire Mirror
New Hampshire remains a microcosm of national democracy in miniature. The state’s traditions—first-in-the-nation primary, open town meetings, citizen legislators—once made it a model of participatory governance. Yet even here, democratic erosion is visible. Fewer journalists cover the State House than a decade ago. Political messaging has become nationalized, driven by super PACs and ideological think tanks. Local policy issues are drowned out by national tribalism.
Still, hope endures in the state’s civic DNA. The sheer accessibility of New Hampshire’s representatives—each legislator representing roughly 3,400 residents—remains a democratic miracle. Rebuilding democracy nationwide may begin with rediscovering this intimacy: restoring face-to-face accountability, funding local media, and empowering citizens to govern themselves at smaller scales.
The Road Ahead
Pew’s 2018 findings are both diagnosis and warning. Americans still believe in democracy; they simply doubt its custodians. The report’s most telling data point is psychological, not procedural: 68 percent of Americans said they “often feel exhausted when thinking about politics.” Exhaustion is not apathy—it is the fatigue of faith betrayed.
To rebuild that faith, democracy must be made tangible again. That means rethinking campaign finance, reviving civic education, strengthening local journalism, and depolarizing political culture through transparency and shared community experiences. The solutions are not romantic; they are procedural. Democracy, after all, is not self-executing—it requires maintenance.
The United States stands at a paradoxical moment. Never before have so many citizens possessed so much information, and yet so little trust. The Pew report captures a collective intuition: that the machinery of democracy is grinding under its own weight. The founding ideal—a government of, by, and for the people—remains the north star, but the compass is broken.
Fixing it will require courage not just from politicians but from the governed. It will demand that Americans remember democracy is not something to be believed in, but something to be done. And as New Hampshire’s long history reminds us, the health of the republic depends not on faith in distant institutions, but on the daily acts of citizens who still believe that truth, transparency, and participation are worth fighting for.
