...was the name of a TV game show, the one that gave Johnny Carson his start.  It is also the question of the day in politics, with the mid-term elections two months away.

It's relevant to criminal law because the public's trust in institutions with law enforcement responsibility is essential to their success.  If lawmakers, the courts and the police are viewed as incapable or corrupt, things will fall apart fast.  Police depend on community cooperation, and juries will reliably follow the law only if they think it's just and working to make them safer.  Public contempt for law is certain to breed crime, vigilantism and nullification.

A Wall Street Journal/MSNBC poll out this morning thus caught my eye.  The accompanying report says, among other things:

Confidence in key U.S. institutions is also incredibly low: 18 percent have confidence in the federal government; 13 percent have confidence in the news media; 12 percent have confidence in large corporations; 10 percent have confidence in the financial industry; and only 9 percent have confidence in Congress.

The numbers for the media and Congress are the lowest for those institutions in the entire history of the poll.

Confidence this low is a petri dish for cynicism and, ultimately, disrespect for law.  The voters need to do something to set things right.  According to the poll, they aim to.