Citizen Assemblies

Public trust in government is near historic lows. But Americans’ trust in their local government far outweighs trust in the federal government. It’s been this way since the mid-2000s, when the State of the Nation Project began keeping track. Standing on the sidelines of Kentucky’s first civic assembly – and one of the first carried out anywhere in the country – the palpable excitement I saw in that conference room was a far cry from the profound polarization, distrust, skepticism, and fatigue driving American political disengagement.