Americans Believe That Government is a Threat to Individual Rights

In a recent CNN poll, 56% of Americans stated that they believe the U.S. government poses an immediate threat to individual rights and freedoms. 56% is a slim majority, but it is a majority.

A majority of Americans expressing that sort of distrust in our day and age is almost unbelievable, but in the days when wiser men ruled our nation it was commonplace. Our very first President, George Washington, said “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” George was clearly a man who believed that the government posed a threat to individual rights and freedoms.

Thomas Jefferson, the most brilliant President in American history, stated “When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” That certainly appears to be an apt description of the current state of affairs in our once great nation.

Thomas Paine, one of the most eloquent founders of the revolution, wrote “When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny.” Perhaps 56% is the turning point where we return from tyranny to liberty.

Responses were split across party lines, but far less than I would expect. In addition to overwhelming numbers of Republicans and independents, 37% of Democrats agreed that the government can now be considered a thread to the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans. These are the same Democrats who voted for big government less than two years ago. Could it be that their love affair with statism is on the rocks?