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Gallup Poll: Satisfaction With Their Freedoms Has Record Drop Among Americans

220px-Scene_at_the_Signing_of_the_Constitution_of_the_United_StatesWe have long discussed the erosion of civil liberties in the United States, including the attacks on privacy and other rights by the Obama Administration. It appears that we are not alone in those concerns. A new Gallup poll shows a record drop in the satisfaction of Americans over their freedoms. The massive drop is matched in such countries as Egypt, Pakistan, and Venezuela.

Seventy-nine percent of US residents are satisfied with their level of freedom. That is down from 91 percent in 2006 — a 12 point drop. We were once the highest country in the world on such polls. We have now dropped to 36th place.

That mirrors other studies showing the United States dropping to the same low levels on press freedoms, Internet speech, and other rights.

The White House has been adept in deflecting such criticism with a host of commentators and bloggers who deflect criticism with references to Republicans and the “red menace” or “things could be worse” spin or simply change the subject. However, the expansion of the internal security network in the United States and police powers is obviously having an impact on how Americans now view their rights. Years ago, I wrote a column entitled “10 Reasons Why The United States Is No Longer The Land of The Free.” Things have only grown worse since that column ran. The Obama Administration’s recent effort to strip citizens of privacy protections over their cellphones and records illustrates the extremism of some of these positions. That argument failed to secure a single vote on the Supreme Court for the Administration’s effort to blow a hole in American privacy protections.

The poll on the eve of the Fourth of July captures the dire condition of American civil liberties today. As I wrote years ago, Obama has been a disaster for the American civil liberties movement and the damage done under his tenure will be felt for decades. What is most distressing is that citizens see the decline but feel virtually powerless to do anything about it due to the duopoly of power in this country. Even with universal calls for change, the two parties are again recycling many of the same figures and same policies as prior years. Polls of this kind show a deep sense of dissatisfaction among Americans but also a complete lack of expression of those views through political channels. That is a dangerous situation for any political system when such widespread feelings are left unexpressed and unvented in politics. The political system seems to be operating in an increasingly unconnected and unresponsive fashion vis-a-vis the public at large. There is a sense among many that I speak to that there is a ruling elite and a vast body of the ruled — a modern equivalent to the helot class of ancient Sparta.

I am still amazed that we have come to this point of rapidly declining feelings of freedom and widespread dissociation with our political system. It is not the failure of our constitutional system and only partially the failure of our leaders. It is largely a failure in ourselves that we have become such grumbling drones — powerless, passive, and frankly a bit pathetic. Our government is openly trying to strip away core privacy protections and increase police powers at every level. Yet, we have fallen victim to the “blue state” and “red state” mentality — allowing politicians to constantly deflect criticism by referring to the other side as the greater evil. The result is predictable and, as with this poll, incredibly depressing.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2014/0701/Land-of-the-free-Not-so-much.-Americans-sense-of-freedom-drops-poll-finds

277 thoughts on “Gallup Poll: Satisfaction With Their Freedoms Has Record Drop Among Americans”

  1. An abstract from Chuck’s Daily-Kos link
    If you read Boing Boing, the NSA considers you a target for deep surveillance
    http://boingboing.net/2014/07/03/if-you-read-boing-boing-the-n.html

    Since the start of the Snowden story in 2013, the NSA has stressed that while it may intercept nearly every Internet user’s communications, it only “targets” a small fraction of those, whose traffic patterns reveal some basis for suspicion. Targets of NSA surveillance don’t have their data flushed from the NSA’s databases on a rolling 48-hour or 30-day basis, but are instead retained indefinitely.

    The authors of the Tagesschau story have seen the “deep packet inspection” rules used to determine who is considered to be a legitimate target for deep surveillance, and the results are bizarre.
    (continued)

  2. Saucy, I am glad you post since we all get a good education in not telling the whole truth. You also did not advance any rational reason for Finland to join NATO when they did not need to join during the Cold War when the Soviets were supposedly bent on world conquest. Is it now that capitalism is now back in charge in Russia the reason for this? Then it would seem that restoring capitalism is the source of Russian “aggression” today. Of course, I can see that Russia might have a problem with getting US troops on their border and might cause a bit of concern. Think that is a legitimate concern at all? Or is Russian history any guide to their response given the FACT the US has invaded Russia before! So just because there are thousands of dead GIs who were fighting the Soviet Union and are still buried there, they are silly to think that the US is not a peace loving country who only wants peace. Or it is more like Mel Brooks said in his parody of Hitler, I want peace, peace. A little piece of France, a little piece of Poland, a little piece of Russia.

    You also reference the war between the Soviet Union and Poland in 1918-19, but you FAIL to tell the FACT that Poland started that war under the dictator Pilsudski. Sort of like referring to WWII, and saying that Britain and France declared war on Germany first. You also did not tell that the Soviet Nazi pact only gave the Soviets what the Poles had stolen from them in that war, and put the border back to what had been agreed in the Treaty of Versailles to the Curzon line which was drawn NOT by Stalin, but the Brit Lord Curzon.

    I am glad you admitted that most of the countries of Eastern Europe voted communist in fairly free elections. That did not last long for a number of reasons too complex to go into here. Austria got its independence back because they had a large Social Democratic party and they agreed to remain neutral and NOT join NATO.

    Then you deny the FACT that Poland joined Hitler is slicing up Czechoslovakia as an ally of Hitler when he decided to take the rest of that poor country which had been betrayed by Britain and France. You also flunk military history when you say Britain and France could not do anything to help Poland when Hitler invaded. They should have immediately invaded Germany ASAP when they declared war. Germany had nothing left with which to stop them on the western front. Instead they simply hid behind the Maginot line and did nothing. Read Manchesters book on Churchill to get an idea of the flavor of the war at that time.

    1. randyjet – Finland did not need to join anyone during the Cold War. They were in a semi-protected status where the Soviet Union was not going to expand, but also was not going to contract. There were a lot of back channel deals make during the Cold War and Finland seems to have been part of them. Now with the EU expansions and NATO willing to expand and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland is on the table.

  7. Max,
    I recall a photo of an attractive young woman at a TSA checkpoint who was handicapped and in a wheelchair. She pulls her coat back and ALL she is wearing under the coat is a sexy bra and panties. That created quite a stir.

  9. If you use TOR … YOU are a target of the NSA… aka a TORRORIST!

    NSA targets the privacy-conscious
    http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/aktuell/nsa230_page-2.html

    As revealed by the British newspaper The Guardian, there have been repeated efforts to crack the Tor Network and de-anonymize its users. The top secret presentations published in October last year show that Tor is anathema to the NSA. In one presentation, agents refer to the network as “the king of high-secure, low-latency internet anonymity”. Another is titled “Tor Stinks”. Despite the snide remarks, the agents admit, “We will never be able to de-anonymize all Tor users all the time”.

    The former NSA director General Keith Alexander stated that all those communicating with encryption will be regarded as terror suspects and will be monitored and stored as a method of prevention, as quoted by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in August last year. The top secret source code published here indicates that the NSA is making a concerted effort to combat any and all anonymous spaces that remain on the internet. Merely visiting privacy-related websites is enough for a user’s IP address to be logged into an NSA database.
    (continued)

  10. *Terrorists refers to who the Government/DoD declare to be public enemy de jour

  11. pete,
    Remember when Congress and the Administration told us that they (terrorists*) “hate us for our Freedoms”…
    … Isn’t that way Congress started to legislate away some of those Freedoms?

    Twisted minds only know the reasoning of the Patriot Act… Yet, we’re still being governed by it’s measures. I’ve been asking, who protects the People FROM an out of control Administration if the Legislative Branch abdicates it’s Oath and responsibility to the People from whom they were elected to faithfully represent?

  12. randyjet
    “… it does not constitute a loss of freedom any more than a cop looking at me while I pass out anti-war leaflets is oppression.”
    = = =
    Does the cop pat you down or demand you go through any screening device BEFORE he allows you to proceed to your destination of passing out leaflets?

    I didn’t think so.

  13. Gallup Poll: Satisfaction With Their Freedoms Has Record Drop Among Americans
    =======================================

    Yipee, the terrorists no longer hate us for our freedoms

    now they can go back to hating us for our ceaseless meddling.

  15. Chuck,
    I now that’s not the man you were referencing. I was just showing an example of the extreme someone went too to cooperate with the TSA. They charged him yet he won in a Court of Law.

  16. Chuck,
    I’ll just say this much… the way the internet is constructed, one moment we’re having this conversation on American soil yet the data streams across the WORLD WIDE WEB! (hint, hint) What’s targeting American communications (domestic) when the server is overseas at any given moment?

    i.e.
    I use Yahoo E-mail… but where is THAT server located that transits the data?

  17. Max,
    I don’t believe that is the same guy. The one I am talking about just wears his standard issue sport kilt, but regimental. He lets the TSA screener find out for him or herself. I assume he is not too ticklish.

    For those not familiar with the term, “going regimental” refers to the fact the Highland Regiments have a regulation against wearing undergarments with the official Regimental kilt. A member of one of the Highland Regiments, such as the Black Watch, can get an Article 15 if caught wearing boxers or briefs with the kilt.

  20. On the contrary, my dearest Nickster, I “get libertarianism.” The problem is that you believe that when someone understands it, it will be wholeheartedly accepted. I am not a follower. I am not a contrarian, but I can see why you would think that. I look at everything and judge it on its own merits.

    As I said before, I believe that the high point of the U.S., economically speaking, was probably in the 1960s, but that is not a hard date. If you remember, bankers earned a middle class income. The UAW was a problem, but then again management also was with its planned obsolescence. Just about everything was manufactured here.

    Given the above — especially the outsourcing — I think implementing a libertarian government today would sound the death knell for the U.S. because it would accelerate outsourcing. People are not going to do the right thing; they will open factories in India and China so they can live the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

    And the quality of everything is pathetic. You surely must remember how good things used to be twenty+ years ago.

    Do the Republicans or Democrats have anything better? Not remotely. The best fix for Congress would be a neutron bomb during a combined session.

    I really do not think you or anyone else here realizes just how much the world changed with the Internet and I’m not talking about viewing cat videos. The Internet enabled outsourcing on a grand scale, to the detriment of ordinary Americans.

    P.S. From my post “America’s lost decade for jobs”:

    decade: job growth
    1940s: 38%
    1950s: 24%
    1960s: 31%
    1970s: 27%
    1980s: 20%
    1990s: 20%
    2000s: 0%

    Taxes went down significantly in the 1980s and 2000s, with the top tax rate during Eisenhower’s terms approaching 90%. But note that job growth pretty much declined since WWII. Therefore tax cuts do not create jobs.

    P.P.S. We worried a lot over whether Italy would become communist after WWII. It was really touch-and-go for a while. But then the economy improved and all of a sudden people no longer thought communism was attractive because jobs were more available. The current transfer of assets from the middle class to the 1% has the same dangers, I think.

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