Posted on 06/24/2010 6:26:59 AM PDT by bamahead
Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Adults see the government today as a threat to rights. Thirty-seven percent (37%) hold the opposite view. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.
Most Republicans (74%) and unaffiliateds (51%) consider the government to be a threat to individual rights. Most Democrats (64%) regard the government as a protector of rights.
Additionally, most Americans (52%) say it is more important for the government to protect individual rights than to promote economic growth. Just 31% say promoting economic growth is more important. But again a sizable number (17%) of Adults aren't sure which is more important.
This nationwide survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on June 18-19, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
I guess the other 52% are on the federal gravy train.
Hey, guys, is that wagon getting heavy?
48% = producers
52% = moochers
Moochers will only complain when they’ve run through OPM.
That’s why next year my girls will be using “The Politically Incorrect Guides” for history.
Thanks for the ping.
You’re right..... it’s the 52% dumbasses who stupidly voted for 0bozo & the demoRATs and would do so again in a heartbeat if the election were held today. 0bozo could rape, violate & murder a young girl on stage in front of national TV, and the mindless demoRAT voters would STILL vote for the commie pig as soon as the show was over.
There was a time when that number was about 85%.
In other new, 52% of Americans don’t watch the news.
“Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights.”
If Rasmussen had been around in 1856, I wonder what kind of results he would have obtained by asking the EXACT SAME questions?
We are seeing the country divide along the most basic philosophical lines.
But even more distubing is the undeniable reality that what one believes is becoming more and more a product of one’s ethnicity and national identities.
In his recent book “We Are Doomed! - Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism”, John Derbyshire identifies this as the “Ice People” and the “Sun People”. Those of you in the know will recall that these are the terms that radical Professor Leonard Jeffries used to describe those of Euro heritage vis-a-vis those of non-Euro heritage.
Of course, Jeffries was a left-wing radical, but Derbyshire asserts that the nation is dividing along similar lines. On the conservative side are the “Ice People” — Euros and Asians. On the left are the “Sun People” — blacks, Hispanics, and others who fall outside the “Ice People”.
We also seem to be dividing towards two fundamentally-opposing philosophies about what government is supposed to be for, and the individual’s role in society.
On one side are the “traditional Americans”. They hold to the old “Scots-Irish” (for lack of a better term) distrust of government, and embrace the rights of the individual. These are the “Don’t Tread On Me” folks.
On the other side are the “new planatation” Americans. They expect every need and whim to be satisfied by “Government”, and they see anything they dislike in the “traditional Americans” as “racism”, “discrimination”, this-ism or that-ism. They are fast-becoming “the new slaves” of America, with government as the plantation and bureacrats as the overseers.
These two philosophies are as incompatible as Christianity is from Islam, and the divisions and tensions between the two sides are escalating.
How will this end?
How CAN it end?
How MUST it end?
Exactly!
He has a video(you tube) on it, and stated this in an interview with Megyn Kelly on Fox News.
He is spot on the money!
Yes. But by using the phrase "the government", the pollster is tacitly referencing the federal government only. The problem of violations of individual rights, however, is not limited to the federal government, but involves state, county, and local governments as well. That is, all levels of government and many different agencies within them are violators on various occasions.
Furthermore, the problems tend to increase in frequency as government is allotted more authority by legislators on various levels and by gutless judges who too often refuse to hold government employees accountable and liable for overreaching their boundaries of power.
All this has been going on for decades, but continues to spiral more out of control with time.
James Bovard has written at least three books on this general subject which are compilations of true stories of outrageous government actions against American citizens, one aptly titled "Lost Rights." Reading Bovard's books will hopefully give second thoughts to anyone who can't see government as a threat.
Exactly!
You can't separate economic rights from individual rights, contrary to what Supreme Court doctrine dating back to the New Deal may indicate.
The left defines rights differently from the Constitutional ones. 48% seems high when so many believe they have a “right” to health care, food, housing, plasma tv, etc.
There still are some basic standards for voter registration. You have to be alive, for one, and you have to be an American citizen, for another. Problem is that government doesn't enforce them too often. And that's another violation of citizens' rights!
Thanks justiceseeker93 — but a single, enforced federal standard for voting for federal offices would be fought tooth and nail by a lot of people around here, even though it is exactly what we need, because it would either necessitate a national ID or it would infringe on “state’s rights”.
Who, or WHAT...opened their eyes????
37% are idiots, the other 15% have yet to decide their idiocy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.