Editor’s note: This is another in a series of monthly “Freedom Index” polls conducted exclusively for WND by the public opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.
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More and more Democrats are becoming alarmed at the direction President Obama is moving the nation as the September WND Freedom Index reflects increasing instability in Americans’ confidence in their constitutional freedoms.
The Freedom Index survey reveals Democrats are “becoming more polarized in how they view their president and the federal government.”
“While those who strongly support the president are growing in number, so are those Democrats who opposed his initiatives,” said an analysis of the survey results by pollster Fritz Wenzel.
“What we find, then, is that there are fewer Democrats left in the middle, as Barack Obama – who ran a campaign last year largely devoid of specifics – begins to make known the detailed plans he has for the country,” Wenzel said.
The bottom line is that the WND Freedom Index has risen for the second straight month – resting now at 56.4 on a 100-point scale. The index is a monthly measure of how Americans feel about what might be happening to a basketful of liberties.
The survey was conducted Sept. 23-26 using an automated telephone technology calling a random sampling of listed telephone numbers. The survey included 30 questions and carries a 95 percent confidence interval. It included 820 adult respondents. It
carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
The Freedom Index started at 57.6 in the first month, then eased back to 53.2 and rose last month to 54.2.
According to Wenzel, of Wenzel Strategies, this month’s results reveal a division among Democrats.
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There was little change in the responses to individual questions among Republicans and independents as Democrats shifted the confidence level towards instability, he said.
“Compared to last month’s polling, many more Democrats said they doubt Americans can associate with whomever they wish without fear of reprisals. In this latest polling, 30 percent said they believe Americans should fear retribution or reprisals based on those with whom they associate, compared to just 16 percent who said the same thing last month,” Wenzel’s analysis said.
“On the question of worship, the overall result shows that Americans are little changed this month in whether Americans can freely worship in the manner they choose without fear of some sort of punishment,” he said.
“But the trend among Democrats is to drift negative on the question. While 76 percent last month said Americans can feel free to worship without concern of repercussions, 68 percent said the same thing this month, and those who said Americans should have substantial fear about how and what they worship increased among Democrats from 11 percent to 17 percent.”
Democrats’ fears over the use of technology by government to spy on individuals also rose significantly.
“Democrats also grew more skeptical this month over the government’s use of technology to become more intrusive into the lives of Americans, while independents were moving in the opposite direction,” he said.
“Among Democrats, 42 percent said they think the government is ‘very intrusive’ into its citizens’ lives, up 12 points from last month, while 35 percent of independents said they did not think the government was using technology to be intrusive, which was up from 21 percent one month ago,” the analysis said.
Wenzel explained the movement there is linked to age, “as those under age 50 appear to be very concerned about the dark side, or misuse of technology. Older respondents, while concerned, did not change their opinions as much over the past month.”
Such concern likely is coming from the town halls, congressional meetings and other discussions over the president’s proposal for more government control over health care, he said.
“It could also reflect the fact that younger respondents are more familiar with technology and are therefore more likely to understand the far-reaching possibilities of how it could be used against American citizens,” Wenzel said.
Democrats, by a significantly higher number, said they feel less free to attend a public rally to support a cause they believe in, to wear a button or place a bumper sticker on their car that expresses their political or religious beliefs.
“This is understandable as the country learns what Obama and the Democratic Party leaders have planned for the country in the months to come,” Wenzel said. “That we did not see the same movement among Republicans and independents is not surprising, largely because those groups had already made up their minds about Obama and were not necessarily as surprised to learn the details of legislation in Washington.”
Overall, 51 percent of Americans say their personal freedoms have declined under Obama’s watch, up from the 48 percent figure in August. While this overall change is statistically insignificant, the “change of heart among Democrats is startling,” Wenzel said.
See detailed results of survey questions:
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