Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

It looks like the incumbents are doing a fantastic job of torpedoing America's confidence in the federal government. From CNN:

A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.

Of course, there is a bit of partisanship in these number:

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

Regardless of your political affiliation, however, one feeling is constant throughout the political spectrum:

. . . Americans overwhelmingly think that the U.S. government is broken . . .

Americans tend to get into a revolutionary spirit when they believe their liberty is under siege. Does this mean a drastic shakeup of the federal government is on the horizon? A power shift back to the states? Only time will tell, but times of crisis tend to yield the greatest changes in our system of government.

FOLLOW-UP: Rasmussen Reports polling data shows that only 21 percent of voters believe the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.