A pair of Gallup polls released last month revealed some interesting insights about Americans’ views on their government.
In the first, a whopping 75 percent of Americans feel that corruption is “widespread throughout the government in this country.” That sentiment is up from 67 percent in 2007 and 66 percent in 2009, and has remained between 73 and 79 percent since 2010. Gallup notes a number of scandals, from the IRS going after conservative organizations under the Obama administration to the Department of Justice’s firing of a number of attorneys, allegedly for political reasons, during George W. Bush’s administration.
If that were not enough, a separate Gallup poll found that 49 percent of Americans think the federal government “poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.” That response is up from 30 percent in 2003, and has remained at least at 44 percent since 2006. Gallup notes that there seems to be a decidedly partisan aspect to the results, with predominantly Republicans complaining about such threats with a Democrat in the White House and vice versa, though that sentiment is stronger among Republicans during the Obama administration than it was among Democrats during the Bush administration.
When asked an open-ended question about what ways the government constituted a threat to citizens’ rights and freedoms, the most common responses were that the government is too big or there are too many laws (19 percent), violations of freedoms or civil liberties (15 percent), gun control or Second Amendment violations (12 percent) and too much involvement in people’s private lives (10 percent). Others voiced concerns about violations of First Amendment speech and religious freedoms, government surveillance of citizens and police violence.
Considering the government’s corruption, scandals and abuses of American citizens’ rights we see on an almost daily basis, one wonders how the other half of the country remains blissfully ignorant — or perhaps even supportive of — these attacks on our liberties. Sadly, Americans’ increasing distrust of their government is justified. It is our hope that they will use the energy stemming from this frustration and outrage to demand that the government be slashed back to its core functions and hold public officials to a higher standard.