Rasmussen Poll: American Sentiment is "Pre-Revolutionary" ... Only 17% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed

I noted in February 2010 that only 21% of Americans believed that the U.S. government had the "consent of the governed".

Only 17% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed

That number has now fallen to 17%:

Fewer voters than ever feel the federal government has the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters think the federal government today has the consent of the governed.

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The number of voters who feel the government has the consent of the governed - a foundational principle, contained in the Declaration of Independence - is down ... to its lowest level measured yet.

Only 6% Approve of Congress ... Many Convinced They are "Crooks"

The poll notes that voters are very wary of Congress:

Voter approval of the job Congress is doing has fallen to a new low - for the second month in a row. Only six percent (6%) now rate Congress' performance as good or excellent.

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Voters also are more convinced than ever that most congressmen are crooks .

America Sentiment is "Pre-Revolutionary"

As Yves Smith points out:

Pollster Pat Caddell said via-email “unprecedented…pre-revolutionary.”

While such language is dramatic, indeed, it is not time Caddell has used it.

Last November, the National Review reported:

In Jimmy Carter’s White House, Patrick Caddell was, in the words of Teddy White, the “house Cassandra” — an all-too-candid pollster whose prophecies spooked the president’s other advisors.

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In 1979, as Carter’s poll numbers slid south amidst a sagging economy, Caddell drafted a memo to the president urging him to recognize that the nation was “deep in crisis.” Gazing upon today’s electoral landscape, Caddell paints an even bleaker picture. “We may be at a pre-revolutionary moment,” he says, unsmiling. “Everything is in motion.”

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Rather than a ringing endorsement of either major party, Caddell sees November as a broader referendum on the political class — the class, he says, to which Obama, and his political fate, are irrevocably tied. “Democrats used to be the voice of the common man in America, not his dictator,” Caddell laments.

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“A sea of anger is churning — the tea parties are but the tip of the iceberg. People say they want to take their country back, and, to the Democrats’ chagrin, they’re very serious about it.”

As we part, Caddell, once the dashing young star of Democratic presidential politics as an advisor to George McGovern, Carter, and Gary Hart, acknowledges that his criticisms may ruffle some feathers or simply be shrugged off by Democratic leaders. Still, he says, it is important to sound the alarm.

After all these years, Caddell laughs, “I know my role. I’m like Toto in the Wizard of Oz. My job is to pull back the curtain to reveal the little man with the microphone.”