56% of Americans think Government an immediate threat to cizen's rights.

The problem is to figure out what this means. A more specific set of questions would have been much more helpful. Do you think gun control is a threat to citizen rights? Do you think that government monitoring of communications is a threat to citizen rights? Do you think that the practice of rendering is a threat to citizen rights? Who knows what people have in mind when the general question is asked. Maybe they are just expressing some general disapproval of the government.

Majority says government a threat to citizens' rights


From CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser

Fifty-six percent of Americans say the government poses an immediate threat to individual rights and freedoms.

Washington (CNN) – A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken - though the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what's broken can be fixed.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.