Poll: Just 17% of Americans Believe the Government Has the Consent of the Governed
I’ll give you the poll, and a snapshot of the reason so many Americans seem to have lost faith in the federal government. Here’s the poll.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters think the federal government today has the consent of the governed. Sixty-nine percent (69%) believe the government does not have that consent. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The number of voters who feel the government has the consent of the governed – a foundational principle, contained in the Declaration of Independence - is down from 23% in early May and has fallen to its lowest level measured yet.
Perhaps it’s no surprise voters feel this way since only eight percent (8%) believe the average member of Congress listens to his or her constituents more than to their party leaders. That, too, is the lowest level measured to date. Eighty-four percent (84%) think the average congressman listens to party leaders more than the voters they represent.
The historic disapproval of Congress is surely part of the mix that has led to such a low regard for the government, and I’d venture that the manner in which ObamaCare became the law of the land — despite majority objection, and accompanied by overt smears of the bill’s opponents — has a lot to do with it too. The literally unbelievable attempt to pin the downgrade on the Tea Party that rose up to prevent it is just the latest sign of contempt that some in power have for the rest of us, and that contempt is more and more a two way street. But let’s take a look at what the government is doing to just one state.
Earlier this summer, the US Fish and Wildlife Department announced their decisions to seek protection for the “dunes sagebrush lizard.” This lizard is a subspecies of the a “common” reptile found in the western US. Hard to be both endangered and common…
The real effect of the listing would be to endanger the state’s oil and gas production industry. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said in May that the federal action “will bring exploration and production to a screeching halt.”
As the guys at AgendaWise noted last month, media outlets have been more than willing to assist the Obama Administration in assaulting jobs in the Lone Star State.
Too bad it doesn’t end there. Not content to just obliterate jobs and shutter a nationally-vital industry in the inconveniently productive (and conservative) Texas, the Obama Administration unveiled last week plans to essentially force the closure of much-needed power plants.
With Texans sweltering under a month-straight of triple-digit highs, and the electric-production grid straining to meet demand, the Environmental Protection Agency could well be putting Texas lives in danger.
The EPA would force coal-fired power generators to unrealistically cut emissions by early January. That means many plants would be forced to just shut down. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s power grid, says the EPA action could cause the state to “face a shortage of generation necessary to keep the lights on.”
Texans will remember this past winter, when bitter temperatures strained the grid and caused rolling blackouts. Eliminating generation capacity will all but ensure worse problems ahead.
Texans didn’t ask for any of this or give our consent for any of this. We voted in a Congressional delegation that doesn’t support any of it, and our state government has fought all of this every step of the way, loudly and publicly. And at least in the case of the EPA regs, Congress itself didn’t vote for any of these actions to be taken. When a Democrat-controlled Congress had the chance to weigh in on cap and trade (upon which the EPA’s actions are largely based) it declined. The government’s agencies have simply assumed powers not granted them, and Congress is evidently powerless to stop them now.
I love this country as much as anyone and served in the military to defend it, but the fact is, we’ve crossed a few lines in the past few years. So if you asked me directly if government has my consent to do what it’s doing, I would answer no. With a modifier or two if I’m in a particularly foul mood. Not only does the government not have my consent, it hasn’t even asked for my consent. The president has dubbed me an “enemy” and treated my state like a hostile power via federal agency power grabs.
I’d wager that every red state and several swing states have similar stories to tell in the Obama years. The Rasmussen poll reflects the spread of a “Come and Take It” mood across much of the nation.
Bryan – You nailed it. The problem is the regulatory state. It is totally unresponsive to the will of the people. Unfortunately, very few understand this problem and so they blame the Congress which is indirectly blameworthy for allowing this usurpation of power by the Executive. If we are to restore the meaning of the consent of the governed, we must hold Congress’ feet to the fire and force in some way or another so it upholds Article 1 Section 1 of the Constitution. To wit, before becoming law, all regulations, or changes to regulations (down to spelling errors) must be voted on in a bill presented to Congress and signed by the President. So, for example, if the EPA is going to hold that a common species endangered (what an oxymoron) that must be presented to Congress as a bill to be voted on and signed off by the President.
With all the talk of Constitutional amendments, I think the one amendment we should have is one that enshrines the Declaration as the spirit by which the Constitution and the nation are guided.
Unfortunately, the founders considered this “self-evident,” being the practical lot they were, but we no longer seem capable of operating without having things spelled out. There literally are many people in power who do not consider the Declaration of Independence to even be relevant to the Constituion; at least two of them now sit on the Supreme Court.
In the 1870′s there was a Congressional proclamation stating the Declaration to be the spirit that guided the Constitution. That was too long ago, and is not embedded into the Constitution itself. Doing this will enshrine Natural Law and make it more difficult to have wild interpretations of the Constitution’s meaning.
Indeed. And this, like Bryan’s post, sees it all
with utter clarity:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100099871/the-stunning-decline-of-barack-obama-2011-edition-10-key-reasons-why-the-obama-presidency-continues-to-meltdown/
“The president has dubbed me an “enemy” and treated my state like a hostile power via federal agency power grabs.”
Who does the government treat better — a foreign national in the country without permission who just committed a crime, or a native-born citizen attempting to start a business?
(Hint: One of the two gets at least one free lawyer.)
Reward our friends and punish our enemies.
If you don’t want to be punished, you should be our friend. You DO want to be our friend, DON’T YOU? I mean, dat’s an awful nice State you got there. Be a shame if sometin’ was to happen to it. Jou gots all dese nice tings, like offshore drillin’, and onshore drillin’, employment, and a clean power grid… and all dese fine peoples who might die, if sometin’ was to happen to deir power.
Come And Take It indeed. How many outside Texas will understand the significance of that… invitation?
I would say I’m shocked but I am not. My husband proudly serves his nation as wife is labeled a terrorist for supporting the Tea Party. Texas is our home state and so many people don’t understand how vital the industry is. In the past we sold off excess energy to places like California. I wonder how far Rick Perry is going to let them push it. I’m no a Perry fan but he has done a good job standing up to Obama so far.
Goes to prove just how fickle todays generations are.
RealClearPolitics 08/06/2011 (Sat) showed an average of 46.6% of Americans approve of Obama….right in line with historical average for many/most presidents in this point of their presidency.
Why anyone would pay any attention to media polls at this point, never ceases to amaze me. We KNOW that many of these poll as worthless, often fixed by over sampling Obama supporters (that would be the Dumbocrats) all out of proportion to their actual numbers in the voting public. We know that these fake polls are hyped by a media that loves Obozo. We also know that many people say they personally like him, or are neutral, simply to avoid charges of racism. I would be willing to wager that his actual approval ratings are at least ten points lower than the RCP average. Even his supporters sound more apologetic than enthusiastic.
Mike….
Hard to know how one is presenting their information online in venues like this.
I posted the polling information for the benefit of the zealots on here who live by the polling they can misrepresent or otherwise leverage to their self serving benefit. The old politcal tactic of report and distort.
Both sides zealots playing silly political games for ideilogocal turf like the Bloods and Cripts gangs, while the nations economy and jobs continue to crumble after three and half long years.
Mike Giles – Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll appears (at least to me) to be relatively unbiased. You may find it at: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
Jack…’public’ pollsters are the prostitutes of ‘politcal’ messaging. They all apply their mastery of word association manipulation to gain a desired outcome for……who? Who is their livelihood ($$$) market? Why?
Yep! The medias political machines and their zealot political punditry who do what? Political pollsters and their market of political zealots corrupt the ‘independent’ election process in America.
Texas: If you make a stand, many of us will stand with you. Because at that point, Texas will not be alone, even many of us in “Blue” states will be facing that same attempt to round us up into more manageable states of being.
Someone on the web today was saying that the USA is in a “pre-revolutionary” state of being; what ever that’s supposed to mean. Perhaps it means that if they decide to come for us, we won’t go and we will stand up to that aggressive form of totalitarian behavior.
I’ve often felt that Obama will not readily agree to the 2012 election results and maybe he isn’t even ready to wait for that before making his moves. Of course, he might also believe that his acts to date have set this country into his desired state of Socialist nirvana; yes, his administration has made it much more difficult to continue as the country we were previously, but it can be done. The bottom line is that Obama is does not believe in democracy nor does he believe in our Constitution and he is acting to destroy our way of life; he’s all about power for himself and his cronies.
“…what ever that’s supposed to mean.”
It means TSHTF, Doug, but to be polite, it means that things are about to reach a boil-over.
What I cannot fathom is how supposedly well-educated people, albeit insulated from reality as you and I might experience it, can possibly fail to see the certain and impending blow-back from supporting policies and actions that got them where they are, at the expense of those who were most responsible for facilitating it, for the most part.
It is much more than simply “shearing the sheep”. This time the sheep will be fighting back.
Put another way, a bird instictively know not to crap in its own nest.
It fouls the nest.
Those who “think” they have an angle on the future, because of their successes in the past, may be in for the shock of their lives.
@ibid: Yeah, well, that’s Pat Cadell’s assessment but since he’s one of the Left’s guys, who really understands his cynical statements. Still, given that and given the 17% support for Obama’s way of doing things, given his and his minions attacks on those who disagree with him, I do believe we’re in for a rough 2-years. Because, again, I doubt Obama will willingly allow for an election to turn him out of office. Obama’s unlike any other politician we’ve ever had and is a true believer in the Ayers Dohrn political philosophy of all power to the Socialist elites.
In other words, we have to protect ourselves from Obama’s bullies.
Your fringe goofballery merely gives very good ammunition to the left.
Sad.
They should recognize it, as much of it is recycled from what came seeping out of their swamps during the Bush years.
7M: Aw, a Socialist Troll heard from, or are you merely a RINO in distress? Cheer up old boy, if you’re merely a RINO, the Socialists will hate you regardless how nice you are to them. Buck up and make an effort to strive forward.
Doug Wright — Don’t be foolish.
I used to work at the State Department, at lefty hothouse. I remember one particular colleague snarking before the 2004 election that she worried that Bush would not leave office if Bush lost the election. I told her she was an idiot. I’m telling you that you are an idiot now for the same reason.
There’s no reason to add evil to the equation of Obama’s utter and total failure when ineptitude will suffice just fine. Moreover, you do your goals and values a great disservice when you make such irresponsible comments. People aren’t likely to take you seriously, as they shouldn’t, and they’re likely to lop the entire conservative movement in with you.
Please up your game.
I’m with Seven Machos. No need to ascribe evil to The One when simple stupidity will suffice. The Left was pathetic when they made those claims about Bush never willingly leaving office, and even more pathetic when Bush left with class and dignity. The same will be true of right-wing idiots who fall into the same trap of paranoid thinking (though based on previous Dem administrations’ performance, I doubt this leaving will be of equal class or grace).
Leftists are simply thugs, and they do their nasty work mostly outside of the view of decent people. It’s only when they want or need other people’s money that they surface like some kind of ugly carp gasping for air. Some people are dumb enough to feel sorry for them. Increasing numbers aren’t anymore, once they realize what these people have done to them and this country over the long haul.
They’ll get what they’ve got coming. No need even to risk anything to give it to them. Just watch and let natural law follow its course. It’s gonna be very satisfying.
Excellent points. Of course Obama will happily go into extremely well-paid and relaxed retirement, where he will earn millions from speaking and sharing his “brilliance” with others. Refuse to leave office? And lose those great benefits? No way.
My suggestion wouldn’t be taken seriously but how about Texas implement a policy that at peak hours all electricity or other power will be cutoff to all non-military Federal buildings. And in the event of Brownouts and blackouts all public services and utilities will be turned off at those same facilities. Also ticket Federal plated vehicles for minor infractions of the law i.e. Speeding, changing lanes without signaling, parking too far from the curb. And force them to pay for the ticket don’t write let them off.
Texans always struck me as a bunch of cocky bastards. Mostly because they are. Leave it to Obama to align me with them completely for the first time in my entire life. Given the way Obama and his insanely out-of-control federal agencies have treated the Lone Star State…well…if they decided to re-institute the Republic of Texas, I wish them well. If the feds should decide that they want to tangle with Texans…there’s a reason they’re cocky bastards. They do tend to win in the stuff that’s important to them.
Every single cabinet in this administration is embarked on various job-killing programs, all of which have some word-sounding legit agenda.
He and all his spokesmen inform the public non-stop about their desire to fix the unemployment problem (which is a root economic problem as nothing can turn and gain traction with one out of five un or under employed).
But he could pick up the phone and in an hour put a hold on every one of these Cabinet sec’s and czars who are doing the damage.
Then he would not have to keep making speeches about his desire to cure unemployment.
Boeing, the Gulf of Mexico, the Border, the EPA, Obamacare, Dodd/Frank,
Dodd/Frank, which is unable to finish the 400 new regs until late 2015, making the gut-wrenching uncertainty of financing for the people of the people by the people practically a permanent condition,
leaving smaller banks (average # employees 35) too afraid of retroactive fines and penalties to loosen up and lend,
bailing out (to a long term cost with interest of 10 trillion dollars that could’ve gone into financing American enterprise) the very institutions which crashed the economy just before the election (thus allowing Obama a certain election win, and to take office with an ‘enabling’ crisis on his hands),
inventing the concept of ‘too big to fail, thereby allowing the printing or ‘deeming’ of fantastical floods of Dollars to borrow in our names and spend not on investments with returns but on pure consumption by bloated jobs programs dressed as government administration,
creating Dollars to the point that only the not finishing of Dodd/Frank is keeping inflation semi-bottled up,
doubling the price of oil and gasoline since taking office,
fraudulently, sneeringly, passing into law of the economically and health-care catastrophic Obamacare (passed with playground-level lies such as the double-accounted ‘Dr’s Fix’),
sneaking in on cat’s feet Net Neutrality to force the right’s pitiful one area of communication into ruin by making it carry the cost of a new Air America preposterous-message industry,
shutting down drilling rigs and coal mines as a crisis measure due to two mysterious and statistically improbable to near impossible accidents,
setting off a coming soon ruinous rise in energy costs (and lowering availability) due to the carbon ppm specs which will cost $150 bbl/yr to get ppm from 75 to 65, when our air contains ppm from from all over the world including the competitors we are in a fight for our lives with, and who have no such regulations,
signing the Start II Treaty which had sat on the shelf for 25 years because it disfavors our strategic deterrence, and which Obama signed so quickly the Russian president was about to injure his face he was grinning so broadly (not to mention what we could not see in Beijing, where the generals are aware that USA is now hooked to parity with Russia –as if the Chinese strategic force does not even exist,
hiring the people who ran the highly suspicious DC/Wall Street/hidden derivatives – caused financial crisis scam to run his economic policy,
secretly setting off the Arab revolts via a bunch of 20-somethings in the state dept and Google,
setting up our truest and best friends internationally to come under greater threat externally as well as internally,
arming drug gangs (killing our Border Patrolmen and committing murders and acts of war on our neighbor Mexico) that were largely non-violent (and should have stayed so, given USAs moderating drug consumption) until the Dems took the 2006 election,
taking the fine pre-2008 economy with its 4% unemployment and 2% to 4% of GDP deficits and tripling them all in two years,
causing the destruction, via all forms of property including real estate, of 15 (now with the mkt crash 18 and counting) trillion dollars of American citizens’ equity, 60 trillion world-wide –nullifying the uncountable, incalculable numbers of work-years taken to compile, impoverishing the elderly who have no time left to rebuild, doing it all in order to create dependence on government as per his communist utopian fantasy –which now that the money’s gone, he is finding that he can’t deliver on after all.
“Oops!” he says. “Oh well, I’m historical!”
But naw, it is not worth reporting during a campaign that every single one of a candidate’s family, friends, and associates are self-described radical communist revolutionaries bent on crashing the USA and the Constitution, people who when they claim patriotism mean that they like American geography and terrain and intend to have all of it.
Lord help us
Obama is not stupid, he’s just wrong in everything he truly believes (not says). He is indeed serving evil and walks in darkness, because he is obviously not a Christian (yes, if one is not a true Christian, then one is serving their father the devil). This is basic Christian doctrine. If you think otherwise, and claim to be a Christian, then you are lost, probably an Arminian or a Catholic, and are in the same boat as Obama (regardless of your political beliefs). To address the point regarding those who would ascribe evil to Obama and believe that he would not go willingly if the results of the 2012 election show him to be the loser– he would if he could, but he cannot. Not in this country– not yet. If he knew of a way to steal the election, he would do it. There are numerous examples of Democrats either successfully or unsuccessfully stealing elections through their evil ways: Alfranken & Algore, et al. When democrats projected their evil hearts and thoughts onto Bush in saying he would not willingly leave office, why does one feel that saying the same thing about democrats would make him or her stoop to the level of democrats? Should we ignore history? Why does one feel he cannot accuse democrats of wanting to do what they have factually already done or have tried to do? To say someone is evil because they are evil does not make one evil. Someone can be wrongheaded and evil, all at the same time. In fact, being wrong most of the time is a likely sign that one has no discernment and and is not a regenerated being. Obama has an above average intellect (it seems), is wrong about everything, and is evil to his rotten core. If you think otherwise, then you likely have no discernment and are basically the same as him. If you cannot tell good from evil, then you are no different than Obama. Read the KJV bible, for the truth will set you free.
This is a parody, right?
wish it was. too much truth in what he says. Clinton was pushing the envelope, and Tim McVeigh convinced his people to slow down. McVeigh was a nut, but it is the lesson of Crispus Attucks that the nuts lead the way in violence.
I would hope that we can slow them down and reverse the foolishness before the violence is necessary. That way the violence is confined to the looney wards (see Jared Loughner). When reasonable people see that peaceful measures don’t work, then violence becomes more thinkable.
Please, dear G-d let peaceful measures work, so the Obamanation can go on to his lucrative retirement. Clean up on isle 44.
Eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear…
What would be really cute would be for those about to be unemployed for concern of this critter, to take up shovels, or flame throwers, or poison, and exterminate the little bugger. Nothing to protect at that point, no reason for silly regulations.
Maybe Texas should try to become 4 different states, to get much much recognition nationally (i.e. 8, not 2, senators)?
North, South, East, & West Texas — sounds good to me. But each would be smaller, yet more successful, than CA.
The government’s agencies have simply assumed powers not granted them, and “Congress is evidently powerless to stop them now.”
Isn’t this exactly why we have the 2nd Amendment?
The states are at a disadvantage now because the Progressives succeeded in blowing a hole in the Constitution with the 17th Amendment; it provided the opening for their encroachment over the past several decades.
The Founders intended the Senate to represent the states – specifically the state legislatures. Think about what kinds of budgets, what kinds of Supreme Court nominees, would make it through the Senate if the state legislatures, through their representative Senators, had a say. I’d wager that even blue states like California would be jealous of their prerogatives and resist the feds’ interferance.
Jack Oke: Spot-on!!
The way to avoid problems like this is to ANNIHILATE the species in question – nothing left to protect.
Seriously, that behaviour is rewarded. Just ignoring the species and letting it live or die on its own merits is PUNISHED…
…as in this example, where land is, for all practical purposes, taken by the federal government, but without compensation. How our nine black-robed overlords manage not to see that boggles the mind.
Like millions of others, I also served in the military for quite a few years. As I get older (54), I’m growing more cynical about our government and worried about the future my grandchildren will inherit.
The Constitution means whatever 5 Supreme Court justices say it means. It doesn’t matter what the words say or what the Founders intended, just what you can get 5 Justices to agree to.
I’ve come to believe that the elected federal officials in Congress and the White House are mostly for show. The real government of the US is the bureaucracy. They’re unelected, unaccountable, and due to civil service regulations, are there for life. They know that politicians come and go so if they disagree with them (e.g. Bush), they’ll do what they want knowing he’ll eventually leave office and is powerless to do anything about it. This political class (or government class) has one primary function – to serve themselves and their cronies.
Re ”is Calvinism a parody” question in the thread, it occurs that among the several philosophies society does not realize it is silently screaming for, a little Calvinism would be –judging by the evidence littered in the breach –high up the list.
Related:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/124933/
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#18 is dead right about the 17th Amendment.
If Obama were serious about wanting to create jobs, he would stop persecuting the people that are trying to create them. But to a leftie like obama only the fed gov can create jobs.