Poll: Most Americans Feel Govt. Threatens Rights; Distrust Federal Govt., Assert It Defies Dec. of Ind.

In the American Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers stated that "Governments are instituted among men" to secure the fundamental rights of the people, and that governments derive their "just powers from the consent of the governed."

But now, a clear majority of the American people distrust the federal government and believe that it "threatens their own personal rights and freedoms," the New American website reports today (February 6, 2013).

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has tracked public opinion regarding trust in the federal government across the span of several presidential administrations, and the level of distrust has steadily grown. In a January 31, 2013 release accompanying the latest poll results ("Majority Says the Federal Government Threatens Their Personal Rights"), the Pew Research Center noted that an overwhelming majority of American citizens operate on the assumption that the federal government will not do the "right thing."

The poll emphasizes that most Americans do not view the federal government as an abstract threat, but rather as a concrete danger to their liberties; even 34 percent of self-described "liberal Democrats" view the federal government as threatening their "personal rights and freedoms." A majority of Americans share that assessment.