Poll reveals majority of Americans consider government a threat

Results of a recent survey suggest that more than half of the Americans consider the US government a threat to their personal rights and freedoms.

According to a poll released by Pew Research on Thursday, 53 percent of the respondents cited their sense of threat and nearly three-quarters of Americans said they only sometimes or never trust the federal government to do the right thing.

This is the first time that a majority of respondents have described the US government as a threat against their freedoms since Pew began polling on the question in 1995.

The survey was conducted on 1,502 adults, who also identified their political affiliations in telephone interviews between January 9 and 13, 2013.

Three-quarters of Conservative Republicans said the government was a threat during President Barack Obama’s time in office, which shows an increase from 62 percent in 2010.

Democrats did not change their views much compared to the 2010 poll, with 38 percent considering the government a threat.

Gun-owning family members are more likely to see the government as a threat, but the gap between them and those living in non-gun owner households has remained constant over the past three years.

According to Pew, anger and frustration continue to spike among Liberal Democrats and more recently among Conservative Republicans.

A recent Gallup survey also showed that Americans’ satisfaction with how things are going in their country has been low over the past seven years, with levels below the historical average.