Majority Of Americans: Government Is A Threat

by Sam Rolley 
The biggest threat to American freedom, according to a majority of Americans, is not global terror or foreign tyrants, but the Nation’s Federal government.
A recent national survey of 1,502 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 53 percent of Americans think the Federal government poses the biggest threat to their personal rights and freedoms, 43 percent disagree and 4 percent don’t know.
Republicans were most likely to point out the government threat to freedom, with 76 percent in the group reporting feeling threatened by the state. Gun ownership also impacted whether or not the Federal government was viewed as a threat: 62 percent of gun-owning respondents felt threatened, while only 45 percent with no guns agreed.
The number of Democrats who felt threatened was still surprisingly high at 38 percent.
Overall, only 26 percent of those polled said they were confident that government would do the right thing all or most of the time; 73 percent said the government was likely to do the wrong thing in most cases.
Despite feeling threatened, only 19 percent of respondents said they were “angry” at government; a larger number (58 percent) said they were simply “frustrated.” Only 20 percent of those polled expressed feelings of content with the Federal government.
Pew also found that 68 percent of respondents don’t like Congress and just more than half blamed the legislative branch for America’s many problems.