Surveys on Americans' views on rights and freedoms have fluctuated dramatically over the years. Ten years ago, in a poll conducted around August 2011, 84 percent of respondents said the government did a good job of protecting voting rights and 75 percent said the government did a good job protecting freedom of religion. A new poll, conducted by the same organization, shows how these numbers have shifted drastically, displaying a completely different outlook on how Americans view how well the government protects their rights and freedoms.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, published Friday, asked respondents if the government is doing a good job at protecting civil liberties like freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Overwhelmingly, the government did not receive high marks from the respondents to the poll.
Regarding freedom of speech, 45 percent of respondents said the government is doing a good job protecting that right. Thirty-two percent of respondents feel the government is doing a poor job, while 23 percent feel neutral on the subject. Forty-three percent of respondents said the government does a good job protecting the right to vote, while 37 percent feel the opposite.
Freedom of speech and the right to vote are not alone. Several rights and freedoms protected by the government received approval from less than half of the respondents of the survey. Regarding freedom of the press, 44 percent of respondents said they feel the government protects freedom of the press, while 26 percent of respondents disapproved of the government's protection of the free press.
The numbers tank from there. When respondents were asked if the government is doing a good job at protecting the right to keep and bear arms and if the government protects the freedom from punishment without a trial, both questions received 35 percent approval from respondents. Thirty-one percent of respondents think the government does a good job of protecting citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. Even lower, 27 percent of respondents said the government is doing a good job protecting the right of everyone to equal protection under the law.
One category, freedom of religion, received approval from more than half of respondents. Fifty-one percent of respondents feel that the government does a good job protecting that freedom. A mere 26 percent of respondents said the government does a good job of protecting the right to privacy. On the contrary, 47 percent of respondents said the government does not do a good job of protecting the right to privacy.
In the poll write-up, it states that 1,792 interviews were conducted from Aug. 12-16 to collect data from respondents. The margin of sampling error was +/- 3.2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level among all adults. Results from the same survey given previous years are included in the poll.
