Record High Percentage of Americans Believe Big Government is the Country's Greatest Threat

The latest Gallup survey reports answers to a question it has been asking since the sixties: which is the biggest threat in the future -- big government, big business, or big labor? A record percentage of Americans, including a majority of every political stripe, fear big government most.

Seventy-two percent of Americans say big government is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor, a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. The prior high for big government was 65% in 1999 and 2000. Big government has always topped big business and big labor, including in the initial asking in 1965, but just 35% named it at that time...

...This pattern is largely driven by Republicans, who generally are more likely to be concerned about the size and power of government, and this concern is amplified when a Democrat is president. Democrats are more likely to see government as a threat when a Republican is in office; however, they tend to see government as less threatening than Republicans do, and their concern about big government topped out at 62% in 2005 under Bush...

...Americans have consistently viewed big government as a greater threat to the United States than either big business or big labor, but never more than they do now. That may be partly a reaction to an administration that favors the use of government to solve problems. Also, the revelation of widespread government monitoring of U.S. Internet activity may be a factor in raising Americans' concern about the government...

If we had a competent, eloquent and principled Republican leadership (i.e., not Johnny Boehner, Eric Cantor and Karl Rove, who appear to represent the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and not American citizens), this kind of information would offer a blueprint for unrivaled success.

The message of constraining government while empowering the individual was that of Ronald Reagan who swept to two massive landslides.

The free market, individual liberty and opportunity for all are concepts that transcend racial, ethnic or religious segmentation: they appeal to all Americans.

We need Republicans who can enunciate those concepts in clear and compelling terms. We need conservative leadership in the Republican Party. We need principled men and women who believe in the sovereignty of the individual.

That is the blueprint for winning elections. And the data proves it.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.