How much anti-government feeling is really out there? Perhaps less than you might think.
Consider a fascinating new poll in which Gallup listed 11 functions of government and asked respondents how much responsibility they think government have for each, one a scale of one to five. For five of the 11 functions, at least 48 percent of Republicans said the government should have more responsibility (giving these functions a four or five on the five-point scale).
“Protecting Americans from foreign threats” not surprisingly got strong support from 96 percent of Republicans. But “Protecting consumers from unsafe products” (66 percent), “Preventing discrimination” (54 percent), “Developing and maintaining the nation’s transportation systems” (52 percent), and “Protecting the environment from human actions that can harm it” (48 percent) also did better than you might expect from all the government-bashing rhetoric dominating the airwaves.
Even 37 percent of Republicans think the government should have more responsibility for “making sure all those who want jobs have them.” And perhaps shockingly, a third (32 percent) think government should have more responsibility for “making sure that all Americans have adequate healthcare.” As one would expect, Democrats rate the responsibility of government 20 to 30 percentage points higher on all of these issues.
The lessons from this poll are simple, but important. While Republicans keep bashing “big government” as a general concept, it’s different when it they are asked about specific government functions. Even as trust in government is at all-time lows, it’s not the case that this means that most voters – even supposed government-hating Republicans – don’t want government to do anything.
Rather, it’s more likely that the anti-government feeling is more about voters not trusting the current leaders in Washington to do what’s right.
To understand this better, consider another recent Gallup poll asking respondents “Do you think the federal government poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens?” Fully 66 percent of Republicans say it does pose a threat, while only 21 percent of Democrats do. But four years ago, when Republicans controlled Washington, the numbers were nearly reversed: 57 percent of Democrats were afraid of the federal government, compared to just 21 percent of Republicans. In other words, this has more to do with who is in power than about the federal government per se.
What this means is that all this anti-government rhetoric needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Most voters (even Republicans) still want the federal government to take responsibility for major things like protecting consumers, the environment, maintaining transit, preventing discrimination, and even ensuring adequate healthcare and making jobs available.
It’s easy for Republicans as the party out of power to bash big government in the abstract and to demonize Democrats for running government poorly. But in the end, the supposed anti-government frame is probably more about personally frustrated voters looking for something and someone to blame. The vast majority voters don’t want government to go away anytime soon – they just want it to operate better and solve public problems intelligently. Though it’s easy to confuse the two, this is an important distinction. Elected leaders, especially extremist government-bashing Republicans, ignore this at their peril.
