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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”

  3. That is correct Max-1.

    I know how the system works and I maintain an extremely small footprint in the virtual world. That’s why I use the pseudonym “Neo”. Every once in a while I change my IP addresses to preserve anonymity.

    In the “real” world I am a Constitutional activist working with many groups.

  4. All these attacks on the president are as old as the office itself. Washington was “viciously attacked in the press by his second term. His opponents accused him of everything from being an inept general to wanting to establish a monarchy. At one point, he said that not a single day had gone by that he hadn’t regretted staying on as president.” So even during the glory days of freedom when the Republic was new there were cranks proclaiming that the sky was falling and that even Geo. Washington was a dictator in the making. Most critics have never read or understood history. Democracy is not pristine. Nations are not either free or tyrannical. They ebb and flow along a path like a river. You can decry Obama every bit as much as we all did Bush. What is irrefutable is that we enjoy incredible economic and political freedom that most of the world would gladly accept –Doomsayers notwithstanding.

  6. Neo
    “I have stayed away from the MKUltra mind control psi-ops for the most part…”
    = = =
    So you’re not on FaceBook also?

    Facebook Mood Manipulation Experiment Connected To Department Of Defense
    http://news.firedoglake.com/2014/07/03/facebook-mood-manipulation-experiment-connected-to-department-of-defense/

    The highly controversial and possibly illegal Facebook experiment on mood manipulation is reportedly connected to the Department of Defense’s Minerva Initiative. The Minerva Initiative tries to model tipping points for social unrest and is funded directly by the Pentagon as well as indirectly through the National Science Foundation. The project is supposed to help improve relations between the Department of Defense as well as help military planning.
    (continued)

  7. Annie wrote “I guess Spinelli doesn’t love you anymore Saucy.”

    Is there a teary-eyed smiley-face?

    I’ve met all kinds of libertarians. I’ve met motorcycle riders who demand the right to not wear a helmet, yet somehow they never refuse treatment after an accident because they contributed to their injuries. I’ve met people who vehemently believe that the Gilded Age was the best time ever. Rand Paul recently congratulated Caterpillar on not paying much in the way of taxes and recommended that course of action to other companies, yet he failed to see the basic flaw in his logic: locals would end up paying the taxes to repair local roads, whether they worked at Caterpillar or not. Most libertarians just want to keep more of their money — don’t we all? — forgetting that taxes pay for Interstate highways, water supply infrastructure, sewer infrastructure, local roads, police, fire protection, libraries, etc. The common thread is that they all want to live in today’s society at yesterday’s prices.

    Nickipooh’s just ticked that I corrected him on the identity of the person who famously said, “I want to be [left] alone,” with that person being Greta Garbo. He thought it was Marlene Dietrich who was actually famous for singing “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)” in The Blue Angel.

  8. Jill,
    I think Obama’s vote to immunize telecoms that were assisting the Bush Admin violate our basic Rights to Freedom and privacy should have been that icing on the duo-layer cake. But alas… “CHANGE” happened and the dividing lines of L vs. R grew deeper. People clung to their idioms like some buybull and gunz… and plugged their noses in apathy of what their lives have become… chattel for the next oligarchs’ election. Freedom to choose has been rendered neutered. The false paradigm of Blue shirt or Red shirt should be relegated for the infantile among us incapable of making truly informed choices. It appears that our Political Parties need a ‘time out’ for their insubordinate contempt OF our Rights… IMO! They are supposed to work FOR US… instead, we’re electing them to work for BigBrotherCorp.

  9. Paul:

    We were talking about parties, not individuals. Parties are judged by their platforms and people by their deeds. If Repubs give more it could be for lots of reasons like benevolence or tax considerations. The point is that the positions differ markedly on the uses of government. No amount of private giving could match the governments’s efforts to end poverty and help people. Individuals just don’t have the means or reach to do that. There are some things that governments have to do. Repubs disagree. That makes them different from Dems. They was my point to Neo.

    1. mespo – that is where we disagree (or at least one of the points). When I talk about Republicans and Democrats I see them as individuals, I never see the party platform. People run on the party platform but rarely follow it or try to get it implemented, except the socialists, who cribbed theirs from the Communists. Democrats like to give other peoples money away, Republican like to give their money away.

  10. Kudos to you Jill. I have stayed away from the MKUltra mind control psi-ops for the most part but you brought it forth eloquently. Just realize that Obama has been paid off and works for the Bush cabal so there is no difference, he’s just as guilty as the rest.

    1. Neo – Obama is part of the socialist/communist cabal started during the Cold War. Obama is the culmination of much work on the parts of lots of people to create a candidate who could become President and then lose the reputation of the United States. We are currently 65th on the ‘Good Country’ list.

  11. Here is some information about govt. propaganda. I have seen these maneuvers in posts many, many times on this blog. This is from a document released by Edward Snowden:

    “Dissimulation–Hide the Real”, while propagating “Simulation–Show the False.” It examines “the psychological building blocks of deception” and the “map of technologies” used to carry out the deceptions, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and “Web Pages”…

    Under the title “Magic Techniques and Experiment,” the document references…”Constructing experience in mind of target which should be accepted so they don’t realize,” and “Optimizing deception channels.” (From Greenwald’s book, page 194.)

    Here I think we see exactly the attempts JT speaks about–attempts to draw away attention from what is happening by creating a false enemy. Obama isn’t doing anything wrong, it’s Bush/Cheney and Congressional Republicans who are to blame for everything.

    This type of propaganda is effective because it relies on something which no rational person should argue: Congressional Republicans and Bush and Cheney have done/are doing truly reprehensible things. Hidden in that truth is the fact that Obama and elite Congressional Democrats are equally engaged in reprehensible actions. This type of propaganda seems to work very well for partisan Democrats. It fits into their worldview, it is soothing and relieves anxiety about what elite Democrats are actually doing.

    By the same token we see attempts to erase history with regards to Bush and Cheney. Again this hiding of the real and replacing it with the false soothes Republican partisans.

    For me, the key is for citizens to understand how desperately we want to be soothed with lies, because this helps us feel better emotionally. Propaganda does this because it was designed to do it. It works until the moment we stop letting it work by seeing reality. Once we can honestly reckon with reality, even though that may be painful, we can band together for a common good.

    Mespo, thanks for getting back my posts!

  14. Paul Schulte:

    I think it just goes to show that you can take the boy out of the KGB, but you can’t take the KGB out of the boy.

    1. Mike – in this case you cannot take the KGB out of the man.

  15. I guess that I am being prohibited from posting or something, so my reply to Darren is lost in the ether.

  16. Celebrate the freedom of illegal aliens to dominate the country on the

    Farce of July. Let’s thrown in the “free stuff” of amnesty for good measure.

    Can we serve you anything else oh, untouchable ones –

    all you Americans-In-Waiting?

    Anybody see a sleeping giant around here?

    The inmates have taken over the asylum.

  17. The only libertarian to vote against the Patriot Act in the US Senate was my favorite vote 3 times, Russ Feingold.

  19. Saucy,
    Maybe he’ll tell you that you’re dead to him like he did to Dredd, when he had his falling out with him too, lol.

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