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64% of GOP Voters See Divide Between Public and Government As Biggest Since the American Revolution
Rasmusssen Reports ^ | Thursday, May 12, 2011

Posted on 05/16/2011 11:39:59 AM PDT by DangerZone

Republican primary voters are pretty skeptical about the nation’s political leadership.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 64% of Likely GOP Primary Voters believe the gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and politicians who want to rule over them is now as big as it was between the American Colonies and Great Britain in the 18th century. Just 16% disagree with this sentiment, and 20% aren’t sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

But then 84% of Republican voters trust the judgment of the American people more than that of the nation's political leaders when it comes to important issues. Only four percent (4%) trust the political leaders more. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided. Among all voters, 76% trust the people more than the politicians.

Eighty-seven percent (87%) say the federal government has become a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Just six percent (6%) don’t share that view.

Two-out-of-three GOP voters (67%) think big business and the government often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors. Thirteen percent (13%) disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure.

“Throughout American history, voters tend to be a few decades ahead of the political leadership,” noted Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “Voters gradually adapt to changes in the real world while politicians become defenders of the status quo. That creates a gap that is closed only when the political elites eventually concede.” Rasmussen wrote of this dynamic in his book In Search of Self-Governance.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely GOP Primary Voters was conducted on April 26, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. Likely GOP Primary Voters include both Republicans and unaffiliated voters likely to vote in a GOP Primary. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Forty-three percent (43%) of the likely primary voters consider themselves to be members of the Tea Party movement; 41% are not, while another 16% aren’t sure. Among all voters, 22% are Tea Party members.

Voters ages 40 to 64 are the most likely to feel that the gap between the people and those in power is the biggest since the 1770s. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Tea Party members feel that way along with 54% of non-members.

Evangelical Christians are more likely to share that view than those of other faiths.

But sizable majorities of GOP voters across all demographic categories agree that they trust the judgment of the public more than that of the country’s political leaders and that government has become a special interest group of its own.

Just 28% of all voters now believe the federal government has the consent of the governed.

For now, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appears to have the solidest support when likely GOP primary voters are asked who they would definitely vote for. More primary voters say they would definitely vote against Donald Trump than for him.

Romney and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are nearly dead-even in the 2012 Republican presidential race if top contenders Huckabee, Trump and Sarah Palin end up not running.

How do primary voters view the dark horses who are possible contenders for the party’s presidential nomination? Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann earns 27% support when pitted against eight other possible second-tier candidates. Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania earns 12% of the vote, while Georgia businessman Herman Cain picks up nine percent (9%).


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2011polls; 2012election; bipartisan; cwii; debt; donttreadonme; economy; elections; globalism; gop; government; govtabuse; nobama2012; obama; rasmussen; revolution; revwar2; socialism; teaparty; teapartyrebellion

1 posted on 05/16/2011 11:40:07 AM PDT by DangerZone
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To: Jack Black

ping


2 posted on 05/16/2011 11:45:11 AM PDT by DangerZone
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To: DangerZone
But sizable majorities of GOP voters across all demographic categories agree that... government has become a special interest group of its own.

This is the money line from the article: "government has become a speical interest group of its own"

3 posted on 05/16/2011 11:45:22 AM PDT by Brookhaven (Ron Paul supports CODE PINK; CODE PINK supports Ron Paul)
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To: DangerZone
"...survey finds that 64% of Likely GOP Primary Voters" should refuse approval of politics by voting, unless a strong pro-American, anti-globalism candidate appears.


4 posted on 05/16/2011 11:47:47 AM PDT by familyop ("Don't worry, they'll row for a month before they figure out I'm fakin' it." --Deacon, "Waterworld")
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To: DangerZone

The difference between King George III and Barack 0bama is that King George had an excuse - he was insane.


5 posted on 05/16/2011 11:49:31 AM PDT by reg45
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To: All

Less Than $2.3k To Go!!
Just A Reminder
Please Don't Forget
To Donate To FR


6 posted on 05/16/2011 12:03:39 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: DangerZone

Wait until you see the whites of their eyes...


7 posted on 05/16/2011 12:18:11 PM PDT by Vendome ("Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it anyway")
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To: DangerZone
I think that the 64% of GOP voters has it right. Unfortunately, their own party is mostly part of the problem.
8 posted on 05/16/2011 12:51:27 PM PDT by Major Matt Mason (RINO's are more interested in defeating conservatives than they are in defeating Marxists.)
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To: Brookhaven

***speical***

Did you misspell Fecal?


9 posted on 05/16/2011 12:55:09 PM PDT by ResponseAbility (Islam...Imperialism in a turban.)
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To: Brookhaven

Funny. I figured that out about twenty years ago.


10 posted on 05/16/2011 12:59:40 PM PDT by Little Ray (The Gods of the Copybook Heading, with terror and slaughter return!)
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To: Major Matt Mason

If 64% of Republicans actually believe then there isn’t any reason for the GOP to remain in the hands of the establishment.


11 posted on 05/16/2011 1:48:14 PM PDT by DangerZone
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To: DangerZone

That’s going too far. The gap is the biggest since the (first) Civil War [or the War of Northern Aggression, for my southern neighbors]. Our government today is the enemy of free people. I hope and pray that the Obama Regime’s overreach, and the longer standing federal overreach, will be scaled back by the voters before we have to water the tree of liberty again.


12 posted on 05/16/2011 3:07:52 PM PDT by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: DangerZone

Eighty-seven percent (87%) say the federal government has become a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests.

Like forcing the citizen class into a government health care plan that is different from their own?


13 posted on 05/17/2011 12:58:25 AM PDT by haroldeveryman
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To: DangerZone
Two-out-of-three GOP voters (67%) think big business and the government often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors. Thirteen percent (13%) disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure.

That is really, really bad news for the limp-wristed, nutless, gutless, RINO traitors.

14 posted on 05/17/2011 1:29:18 AM PDT by meadsjn (Sarah 2012, or sooner)
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