Americans are out of sorts, and increasingly they're unhappy with the government. According to a Pew poll released last week, more than half of Americans view government as a threat to their freedom.
And it's not just Republicans unhappy with Obama, or gun owners afraid that the government will take their guns: 38% of Democrats, and 45% of non-gun owners, see the government as a threat.
Add this to another recent poll in which only 22% of likely voters feel America's government has the "consent of the governed," and you've got a pretty depressing picture -- and a recipe for potential trouble. Governments operate, to a degree, by force, but ultimately they depend on legitimacy. A government that a majority views as a threat, and that only a small minority sees as enjoying the consent of the governed, is a government with legitimacy problems.
Yeah, I'd say.
4 comments:
Pew also says 53% of Americans think the govt now infringes on their personal freedom.
But what is the people's concept 'the govt'?
Some executive branch action or rule from a board, or czar run agency originally approved by congress and empowered to make more rules, itself? That would be the FDA, EPA, FTC, FCC, NLRB etc.
The IRS?
The Tea Commission?
Menendez?
Gas prices?
Retail ammunition supplies?
A congressman or woman who will not deal with them?
What is the govt the people no longer trust?
The answer to that question carries the weight.
Yes, you're right. The number by itself does mean something, though.
I don't trust the gov't.
Any of them.
All of the above.
Take yer pick.
Yes I think that's the preferred ans.
I just wonder what's in the mind of the public when they answer hat question.
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