now in my view, saying that the government is a threat to the rights of its citizens is like saying the sky is blue on a sunny day, but more tautological. obviously any huge body of extremely heavily-armed people, with the greatest system of prisons the world has ever known, unlimited funding, etc is by definition a threat to the rights of everyone, even each other, even in a case in which they are at the moment entirely sweet and benevolent (which of course is never actually the case). however, that 56 percent of americans also think so kind of surprises me and bodes well for our slightlyfree future.

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: Only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents and nearly seven in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

this really does tell you something central about the american left and is why you should simply not be associated with it.