Across the nation, this seems to be a year in which not just distrust but outright contempt for government is driving the body politic.

For both major political parties, perceived outsiders are at or near the top of the polls after months of campaigning and one state caucus. A national average of public opinion polls shows less than 30 percent of Americans feel the country is headed in the right direction while more than 63 percent say it’s headed in the wrong direction.

Hawaii isn’t exempt from this general feeling of angst and dissatisfaction. The Civil Beat poll of 922 registered Hawaii voters found that only 35 percent of respondents feel the country is moving in the right direction, even though 57 percent have a positive opinion of President (and native son) Barack Obama.

Conservative and Republican-affiliated voters feel the most strongly about our national direction: About eight in every 10 say the trend is bad.

Sentiments regarding Hawaii aren’t much better: About one-third of respondents overall say Hawaii is on the right path, though only half say it’s explicitly moving in the wrong direction. Curiously, a little more than one-third feel positively about Gov. David Ige, one-third feel negatively and one-third said they are unsure.

It’s that feeling of negativity and cynicism that struck us as the dominant theme in the first Civil Beat poll of the new year. A slim majority of respondents, for instance, oppose NextEra Energy’s acquisition of Hawaiian Electric Industries. But about two-thirds think the state Public Utilities Commission will favor the interests of business and elected leaders over those of the public.

Only 16 percent of respondents felt positive and unconcerned about issues related to progress on the Honolulu rail project, while about eight out of 10 either were troubled by the project or thought it a bad idea altogether. Ninety percent of respondents called homelessness a major problem throughout Hawaii, and less than one-third thought the problem has lessened under the leadership of either Gov. David Ige or Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

In perhaps the poll’s only hint of positivity, 62 percent of respondents said they thought effective leadership can solve homelessness.

Among Voters, A Winter Of Discontent

What are we to make of all this, particularly in an election year in which voters’ discontentment may drive whether they cast a ballot and for whom?

In past presidential election cycles, the generally accepted wisdom has been that if the economy is in good shape, the incumbent party fares well. And by most measures, the U.S. economy has completed a 180-degree shift from the shambles it was in when Barack Obama was first elected nearly eight years ago.

Unemployment has dropped by more than half, last month falling below 5 percent, its lowest level since 2008. The housing market and mortgage industry, banking and financial systems and automotive industry were all in deep trouble when Obama was inaugurated, and each has mostly, if not entirely, recovered. Meanwhile, the Affordable Care Act has enabled more than 90 percent of Americans to enjoy health care coverage — an all-time high for this nation.

Hawaii has certainly felt the recovery. Home prices not only have recovered, but have risen to record levels. State unemployment is about 4 percent, one of the lowest rates in the country. And though Hawaii’s exorbitant cost of living continues to be a source of concern for working-class residents and a major driver of homelessness, our islands remain highly desirable places to live.

But Hawaii voters are not immune to the messages being relentlessly pushed in a primary season where the phrase “let’s make America great again” has been both the tagline of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and a sort of summary statement for those who can only see good times growing ever more distant in the rear view mirror.

Voters may be troubled by conflict and terrorism clawing at civilization in countries around the planet and concerned — even without evidence — that America’s role as the world’s leading superpower is threatened.

Voters seem unsettled by the pace of technological and social change and a cultural landscape that sometimes seems as foreign as the surface of Mars.

Transparency, accountability and consistent communications are too often in short supply in Hawaii governance, which can leave voters feeling not only that the deck is stacked against them, but that they are impotent to seek change.

Their discomfort shows in conflicting poll responses. On the one hand, they seem to feel their own situation is pretty good: The Consumer Confidence Index rose last month to 98.1 (on a scale of 100). But, as noted above, nearly two-thirds of voters in national polls and half of Hawaii respondents to the Civil Beat poll say America is on the wrong track.

Those who interpret such “wrong track” responses and the rise of outsider candidates as a sign of voter anger are probably wrong, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released in late January. Only 24 percent of respondents described themselves as angry about the federal government, which is on the low side of responses to that question in recent years, according to the Post. Twice as many described themselves as “dissatisfied, but not angry.”

That seems to track with the general feeling in the Civil Beat poll, also conducted in January. As noted in the response to Civil Beat’s question on the NextEra/HEI deal, that dissatisfaction may mean not only that they don’t feel government is working properly, but that it isn’t working in their interests. That applies equally to responses to questions on the Honolulu rail project, with budget overruns of $1.5 billion that have never been fully explained and which promise to grow larger in the months and years ahead.

This is a challenge that government is, in part, able to address. Transparency, accountability and consistent communications are too often in short supply in Hawaii governance, which can leave voters feeling not only that the deck is stacked against them, but that they are powerless to seek change.

Our state’s one-party government — Democrats hold all federal seats, the governor’s office and all but eight seats in the state Senate and House — often furthers the impression that the important decisions are made by a privileged few, behind closed doors, out of the sight of ordinary citizens.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once famously prescribed an antidote to such an environment: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”

That may not be all that’s needed to change the attitudes voters expressed in the Civil Beat poll. But it’s a great place to start.