Blendon and his colleagues began a study of how the United States of America has changed morally, religiously, and politically over the past 30 years. Using polls conducted in the 60s and asking these same questions to Americans in 1999 provided Blendon with statistics that I found to be shocking. Personally, when I think of the 60s the word rebellion comes to mind almost immediately, so it was surprising to see that people today seem to think on a more radical level in comparison to the 1960s.
In the 60s, America was at war in Vietnam. As we all know the Vietnam War was openly and largely protested by many American citizens. With this being said, we would assume that people would be distrustful of the government's actions. On the contrary, only 23% of those polled believed that our government leaders were not doing the right thing, whereas 66% of people polled in 1998 said that they thought our government rarely made good decisions. There was also a large increase in people who thought "big government" was becoming a threat to America's future (35% in 1965 to 59% in 1998). For the most part we can see that Americans today have less and less faith in our government offices then in the 1960s.
Blenson also polled Democrats and Republicans today in his study. Here I was relieved to see that my usual perceptions of the two political parties were still correct for the most part. The poll showed that Democrats are still liberal and Republicans are still conservative. This is one thing that has not changed in the last 30 years and I do not think it will change anytime soon.
The American people also have very different moral values when it comes to the 60s and now. 1965's poll results showed that fewer than half of poll respondents had a negative view of young Americans. But today 78 percent feel that the morals of young Americans have declined. In general, 71 percent of people polled today believe that people in general lead less honest and moral lives than they once did.
