Abstract
This essay reviews three books: The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America, by Robert Wuthnow; Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change, by Janelle S. Wong; and The Government-Citizen Disconnect, by Suzanne Mettler. Two common themes are evident. The first is the importance of political polarization and the dominance of race in predicting political views and government’s role in society. The second is distrust of the federal government among conservatives in the United States. Together, these books provide a thorough understanding of the factors associated with this distrust—most notably, partisanship, race, religion, and immigration status. This review brings in other sources to point out that these associations did not happen by accident but were manufactured by conservative political elites. I conclude by considering the consequences of government distrust for democracy in America.
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