Gallup: 46 percent believe government poses immediate threat to rights and freedoms

Brett T. | 9:00 PM on May 27, 2013

One of the biggest and most divisive themes of the 2012 campaign season was the battle between “the makers” and “the takers,” which reached its peak with the release of Mitt Romney’s secretly recorded “47 percent” comments. Romney backtracked from the comments at the time, but in a post-election conference call suggested that President Obama’s promise of “gifts” (like free contraceptives and college loan forgiveness) did plenty to win him reelection.

That “gifts” comment struck a nerve with Obama supporters, and even Gov. Bobby Jindal called it “absolutely wrong.” Matt Drudge, though, isn’t so quick to disown Romney’s 47 percent theory and cites a new Gallup poll as evidence that the country is split down the middle between those trying to live free of government and those depending on it.

https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/339135128230055936

Gallup’s poll of 1,016 adults showed that 54 percent believe that the federal government has too much power. More remarkably, though, 46 percent believe that the government “poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.” Could it be that the news of the IRS targeting conservatives and the Justice Department targeting journalists (and even their parents) is getting through? Even Piers Morgan admitted was beginning to understand all those warnings of creeping tyranny.