Poll: Strong majority of voters think a more powerful government leads to less individual freedom
A strong majority of U.S. voters say an increase in the power of government leads to a decrease in individual freedom, according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.
Sixty-three percent said increasing government's power means individual Americans will enjoy less freedoms. Just 22% disagree with that proposition, while 15% were "not sure."
The responses by party affiliation were largely as expected, with a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats expressing concern about the loss of individual freedom. However, some of the responses appeared unexpected:
Seventy-nine percent of Republicans said more government means less freedom, but a near-majority Democrats – 49% – also had that concern, as did 50% of "somewhat liberal" respondents.
The survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from Feb. 11-13 by Rasmussen using a mixed-mode approach. The full sample has a sampling-error margin of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Click here to see the poll's cross-demographic tabulations.
Click here to see the poll's methodology and sample demographics.