American and British voters share deep roots, they distrust their leaders

DARTFORD (AP):

Distrust has settled over the campaign trails in the United States and United Kingdom ahead of July 4 like a soggy summer haze.

On that day, British voters will choose a new Parliament in an election expected to finish with a Labour government after 14 years under the Conservatives. Americans across the pond, deeply polarised by the rematch between Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump, will mark Independence Day in something resembling unity, with barbecues and fireworks ahead of their vote on November 5.

There’s much to celebrate on the Fourth of July for one of the world’s biggest democracies and the venerable kingdom that gave rise to it, 248 years after they split and set off on slow, troubled journeys towards granting all citizens the right to vote. Both remain rooted in the Magna Carta, the English document signed in 1215. It set in writing the idea that leaders – including kings, presidents and their governments – are not above the law. The nations have become close friends and stalwart allies.

That’s how it started.

As for how it’s going, the run-up to July 4, 2024 – Independence Day for one land, election day for the other – offers a snapshot of the stress test facing voters in each country.

“I’m just very disheartened, really, because I don’t think any of the parties know what they’re doing,” Dartford, England resident Jacqueline Richards, 77, said of her country’s election. “But then looking at yours in America, it’s not that great, is it?”

TRUST HAS TAKEN A BEATING

Every democratic election is, at its core, about who voters trust to run their country so they can go about running their lives.

Debates are candidates’ aptitude tests in real time, never more so than during Thursday’s showdown between Biden, 81, and Trump, 77. Biden’s halting performance did the opposite of building confidence, even among some of his most loyal supporters. Trump, meanwhile, repeated his lies about the January 6, 2021 insurrection and his record as president.

That’s only the most recent example of why distrust and a sense of resignation dominate the emotional landscape in both countries, according to voters interviewed by The Associated Press in recent weeks. From battleground Wisconsin to bellwether Dartford, England, voters said years of misinformation, scandal and lies have drained them of the sort of optimism or excitement they might once have felt about the right to vote, or the future.

In Britain, 45 per cent said they “almost never” trust governments to put the nation’s interest first, up from 34 per cent in 2019, according to a survey published on June 12 by the National Centre for Social Research. The pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine War and the country’s cost-of-living crisis affected living standards and the economy, it reported. Two Tory prime ministers were ousted. Also, there was Boris Johnson, who resigned rather than be thrown out of Parliament over boozy parties at 10 Downing Street when the nation was under COVID-19 lockdown.

A vote to turn the Conservative government out of power is not necessarily a vote for Labour, opposition leader Keir Starmer acknowledged during a May 27 debate. Voters, he said, “still have questions about us: Has Labour changed enough? Do I trust them with my money, our borders, our security?”

Starmer’s own answer was yes, of course. But British voters told the AP in the weeks before the election that they’re far from sure.

“They promise and promise and promise, and nothing ever changes,” said Shane Bassett, 34, the bar manager at a pub in bellwether Dartford, where the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 is said to have started. “No matter who gets in – if it’s Labour, if it’s Conservative, it’s all the same. They all lie.”

DEEPENING POLARISATION

In the United States, trust has been eroded by deepening political polarisation, misinformation and Trump’s lies about Biden’s victory in the 2020 election – all amplified by social media.

Roughly two in 10 Americans say they trust the US government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time,” according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. About six in 10 say they can trust the government “only some of the time”, and about two in 10 say they can never trust the government to do what’s right.

Nearly three-quarters of American adults blame the news media for dividing the nation, according to a 2023 poll by AP-NORC. Families and friends have learnt to avoid discussing politics around Thanksgiving tables and other gatherings. In many places, even celebrations of the Fourth of July – a national holiday when Americans mark the 1776 ratification of the Declaration of Independence from Britain – fall under this practice of restraint.

In Racine, Wisconsin, Rebecca Eisel, 48, wondered how the vast United States, home of 262 million eligible voters and the world’s biggest economy, faces a rematch that few Americans wanted.

“How did our democratic process result in something that the majority of the population doesn’t like?” Eisel said over a sandwich at the Maple Table restaurant.