'Government A Threat,' Majority Of Americans And 3 Of 4 Conservative Republicans Tell Poll

The percentage of Americans who see the government as a threat to their freedoms is at an 18-year high, according to a poll released Thursday by Pew Research, with the change fueled mostly by conservative Republicans.
Fifty-three percent of Americans now say that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms -- the first time a majority has agreed with that statement since Pew began polling on the question in 1995.
Mistrust of the government is also high, with nearly three-quarters of Americans saying they can trust the government to do the right thing only sometimes or never.

Conservative Republicans have grown increasingly likely to view government as a threat during President Obama's time in office. Three-quarters now say the government is a threat, up from 62 percent in 2010. That sentiment increased to a lesser extent among Republicans as a whole. Democrats, 38 percent of whom see the government as a threat, showed relatively little change.
Conservative Republicans are now also more than three times as likely than Democrats to say that the government poses a major threat to their rights and freedoms.
Members of gun-owning households are more likely than non-gun owners to see the government as a threat, although the gap between the two has remained constant over the past three years.
While the view of the government as a threat is at a peak, unhappiness with the federal government is not unusual, according to Pew, with anger and frustration spiking among liberal Democrats during George W. Bush's second term and more recently among conservative Republicans. Since 1997, the only time most people were basically content with the government came immediately after 9/11.
The Pew poll surveyed 1,502 adults between Jan. 9 and Jan. 13, using live telephone interviews. Respondents self-identified their political affiliations.

 Things Being Blamed For Sandy Hook

 

The Lack Of Guns In Schools

The idea that the tragedy wouldn't have been as bad if more guns had been available has emerged as a highly popular argument in pro-gun circles.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) suggested on national television over the weekend that if the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary had quick access to her own assault-style rifle, the situation could have been halted by her gunning down the shooter.

A number of state legislators and governors have since announced plans to consider eliminating gun-free school zones in order to allow staff to come into work with their firearms.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence responded to this idea, calling it an "insane" proposal that suggests "the only answer to violence is more violence. The only answer to guns is more guns.”

A large Illinois teacher's union and other school administrators have since scoffed at the suggestion.

 

The Lack Of God In Schools

Former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee became the spokesman for this argument on Friday, saying that the crime was no surprise because we have "systematically removed God" from public schools.

A number of religious leaders have since echoed this reasoning, claiming that the squelching of religion in school has helped create a culture where mass shootings are more frequent. In this argument, they also appear to suggest that free-flowing religious expression repels violence.

 

Violent Video Games

Reports that alleged shooter Adam Lanza was an avid video game player have led lawmakers from both parties to suggest games deserve some blame for mass shootings.

A number of Democratic lawmakers called for new studies into the effects of violent video games on their players. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said some blame belongs to violent forms of entertainment.

A number of recent studies have found no correlation between video games and gun violence.

Fisher Price Toys?

Glenn Beck seems to think there could be a connection between baby toys and mass murder. Follow the link to the left for additional confusion.

 

The 'Evilness' Inside People

As in prior mass shootings, commentators and politicians have been quick to assign words to Lanza that suggest he was driven by some supernatural force.

"What we tend to do, because we can't understand these killers, is define them as monsters," Scott Bonn, a serial killer expert and assistant professor of sociology at Drew University, told HuffPost's David Lohr. "You almost always see the word 'evil' and 'monster' used in reference to serial killers and mass murderers. This tendency to turn them into these supernatural ghouls obscures the fact that these are really disturbed individuals. It oversimplifies what is a very complicated problem. It obscures the reality of what's going on, and we as a society never make it beyond that. That's why we go on finger-pointing."

 

Support For Gay Marriage & Abortion

Here's how Focus on the Family founder James Dobson attempted to explain the massacre:

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed 54 million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences, too.

Apparently growing public support for gay marriage and abortion rights helps explain mass shootings.

 

School Curriculums

In a Sunday sermon, Pastor Sam Morris of Old Paths Baptist Church in Tennessee linked the shooting to a public school system that focused on "humanism" and scientific principles, which in turn may have led Lanza to believe that he was God and could "go blow away anybody he wants.” Morris also managed to throw in a reference to "how to be a homo" classes.

"When I got in high school, man, I started learning all this kingdom, phylum stuff, all this junk about evolution,” Morris told his congregation, according to Raw Story. "And I want to tell you what evolution teaches -- here's the bottom line -- that you're an animal. That’s what it teaches. So, you’re an animal, you can act like an animal. Amen.”

Morris continued:

“So, here you are, you're an animal and you’re a god! So, what are we going to teach you about in school? Well, we can teach you about sex, we can teach you how to rebel to you parents, we can teach you how to be a homo! But we’re definitely not going to teach you about the word of God! Amen.”

 

Hollywood

It's popular to blame Hollywood for promoting themes that contribute to the supposed disintegration of society's moral fabric.

Over the weekend, former Reagan speechwriter and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan argued that Hollywood was being negligent in denying its role in promoting a culture of violence that supposedly motivates mass killers. She said it would take action from Obama to get the film industry to change its mind.

From Noonan's Wall Street Journal op-ed:

When Hollywood wants to discourage cigarette smoking it knows exactly how to do it, because it knows exactly how much power it has to deliver cultural messages. When Hollywood wants to encourage environmentalism it knows how to do it. But there’s a lot of money to be made in violence, and God knows there’s a market for it -- in fact, the more people are fed violence the bigger the market grows, so it’s an ever hungry, always growing market. This is exactly what you want if you’re in a tough business and don’t have a conscience.

Republicans have no sway in Hollywood, none. They are figures of mockery, sometimes deservedly so. If they get into the act here, Hollywood will be able to ignore them, and nothing will change. But the Democrats and the president are in a different position. They could change things for the better.

 

Asperger's Syndrome

Due to a number of media reports and interviews, claims that Lanza had Asperger's -- a form of autism -- has played into initial rounds of speculation about why he might have carried out the massacre.

Experts say there is no link between Asperger's and violence, and the original reports have since prompted pushback from a number of writers and bloggers who claim they were wrong to connect the two.

 

Libor, 'The Hunger Games,' Drugs, Brainwashing, Or...OBAMA?

Talking Points Memo broke down the conspiratorial fervor over supposed ties to the Libor British banking scandal. According to their report, proponents of these theories attempted to to connect the Newtown shooting with the earlier one in Aurora, Colo., crafting a complex web surrounding unfounded rumors that various family members close to both gunmen had been planning to give bombshell testimony on global banking fraud.

Others said the shooting had something to do with the highly popular book series, "The Hunger Games," because author Suzanne Collins is from Newtown.

And the drugs and/or brainwashing theory comes from birther queen Orly Taitz and has zero discernible factual basis, so that pretty much covers that angle.

She's also responsible for concocting a theory that President Obama is "trying to show that some person can appear out of the blue and slaughter people" so he can ban guns and "gain an absolute power."

So there you have it.

 

Teacher's Unions

This fringe idea comes from Timothy Birdnow at Tea Party Nation, an ultra-conservative offshoot of the Tea Party movement.

According to Birdnow, teacher's unions have helped ensure the gradual degradation of the moral values espoused in schools will continue to do so as long as they exist.

Birdnow suggests allowing volunteers such as George Zimmerman, the man accused of killing Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, to serve as security personnel.

If Zimmerman had "been at the front door instead of some mechanical card reader those children would still be alive," Birdnow writes. Thanks to the teacher's unions, he argues, that will never happen. 

 

The Media

In a Wall Street Journal column, James Taranto argued that wall-to-wall coverage of the perpetrators of mass shootings encourages them to act. He admitted that there was no simple way to avoid such tendencies, but urged restraint:

Our point here is that the medium is the motive: If these killers seek recognition, it is available to them because the mass media can be counted on to give extensive attention to their horrific deeds. They are, after all, newsworthy, and they do raise important questions of public concern, not only about the availability of weapons and the vulnerability of "gun-free zones" but also about the treatment of mental illness.

We journalists often proclaim high-mindedly that the public has a right to know--and we're right. But as in the Garden of Eden, knowledge is dangerous. An industry devoted to serving the public's right to know gives twisted and evil men the means of becoming known.