Democracy Forum

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine We talk about trust and distrust in government. What is the history of distrust in government in the US? How has it been weaponized in the last half-century? What do we lose when we have a blanket distrust in government: who loses and who gains? What motivates strategic attempts to weaken government? In what way is distrust a weapon in the arsenal of attempts to weaken or reduce government? Guests: Amy Fried, John Mitchell Nickerson Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine Steven Webster, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University To learn more about this topic: How Republicans Stoke Anti-Government Hatred by Luisa S. Deprez in Washington Monthly, August 27, 2021 Covid vaccine resistance and the Capitol riot stem from the GOP long weaponizing distrust, by Noah Berlatsky in NBC New Think, Aug. 3, 2021 Are Liberals to Blame for Our Crisis of Faith in Government? by Louis Menand, August 9, 2021 in The New Yorker At War with Go