How do Americans feel about our elected leaders? We asked. | Opinion

As America reaches its 250th anniversary, nearly 2 in 3 Americans (63%) say that if the Founding Fathers could somehow see today's U.S. government, they would conclude it is doing a poor job fulfilling their vision.

That finding comes from a new national survey my colleagues and I conducted through the Program for Public Consultation, affiliated with the University of Maryland, and in partnership with the university's Civic Innovation Center.

The finding raises an obvious question: What do Americans believe has gone wrong?

Do Americans believe government cares about the 'public good'?

The answer is not that Americans have rejected the founders' ideals. Rather, many say government has drifted away from them.

The Founding Fathers repeatedly argued that government should serve the common good. John Adams wrote that government is "instituted for the common good," while James Madison described "the public good" as government's highest objective.

Yet just 22% of Americans say government today is "run for the benefit of all the people," while 78% say it is "run by a few big interests looking out for themselves." More than 6 in 10 say members of Congress prioritize the interests of campaign donors over the good of the country often or almost always.

The founders also envisioned a government guided by the people. But 6 in 10 say the public has less influence over government than the Founding Fathers intended. Nearly 7 in 10 say members of Congress are guided by the views of their constituents less than they should be.

Perhaps most striking, when Americans were asked how often elected officials make the same decisions a majority of Americans would make if they were deciding the issue themselves, the average answer was just 41% of the time.

Taken together, these findings suggest Americans see a growing gap between the people and the institutions meant to represent them.

Has our government become too distant to serve Americans?

The question, then, is what can be done to narrow that gap.

Most Americans answer that the solution lies in reducing the role of money in politics. More than 8 in 10 Americans support a constitutional amendment allowing Congress and state legislatures to limit political spending by corporations and political action committees.

But constitutional amendments are difficult to pass, and few expect one anytime soon. Fortunately, Americans see another path forward that does not require changing the Constitution.

Sixty-eight percent say members of Congress should make a greater effort to understand the views of their constituents. Two-thirds agree that elections alone are not enough and that government should actively seek public input between elections.

For most of American history, obtaining informed public input on complex policy questions was difficult. Today, we have reliable tools for understanding what the public thinks once people have had an opportunity to consider the facts and competing arguments.

Citizens can review balanced information, consider competing arguments, and weigh in on policy proposals through a variety of methods, including citizen assemblies, deliberative forums and large-scale public consultations.

Americans strongly support these approaches. After considering arguments for and against them, 85% favored elected leaders consulting the public in these ways and taking the results into account.

And notably, nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they believe the founders themselves would approve.

As the nation marks 250 years of self-government, Americans are sending a remarkably consistent message. They believe government has become too distant from the people it serves.

Restoring trust will require many reforms. But one place to start is an idea as old as the republic itself: Elected leaders should make a greater effort to understand and reflect the views of the American people.

Dr. Steven Kull is a political psychologist and founder of the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. For more than three decades, he has conducted in-depth research on public opinion and democratic governance.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How do Americans feel about our elected leaders? We asked. | Opinion

Reporting by Steven Kull, Opinion contributor / USA TODAY

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This story was originally published July 3, 2026 at 2:07 AM.