Nearly three-quarters of voters believe that America is “becoming” a police state under President Joe Biden, whose administration has invested heavily in investigations of Republican politicians and political challengers.
According to the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, 72% said that they are concerned that “America is becoming a police state.”
Rasmussen described that as “a tyrannical government that engages in mass surveillance, censorship, ideological indoctrination, and targeting of political opponents.”
Republicans pushed the survey of concerns high, with 76% expressing fears. But Democrats were close behind at 67%.The polling outfit asked three questions about America turning into a police state, the topic of a new movie by conservative influencer Dinesh D'Souza. In
Police State, screening at select theaters on Oct. 23 and 25, D’Souza makes the case that America is starting to resemble a third-world dictatorship.
“I came to America as an immigrant in the late 1970s because America offers these basic inviolable liberties: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, the right to assemble, the right to petition the government, equal justice under the law. These rights are supposed to be above politics. Even a majority cannot override these rights,” he told Secrets.
D’Souza added, “It's been very shocking to me to see the way in which all these rights are now in jeopardy. And so that's the theme of Police State, and clearly, the results of the Rasmussen survey show that this is a theme that worries not just me, but also the American people.”
Those concerns and the general "weaponization" of the federal government have been the focus of hearings in Congress. On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland dismissed the claims, while a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission confirmed that the agency is being used against Republicans.
Rasmussen also asked which political party is responsible for the trend toward authoritarianism, and voters chose Democrats over Republicans by a 48%-41% margin.
And they were quizzed about the role of the FBI and if the agency is a danger to American freedom. Some 50% said the agency is, while 45% said it wasn’t.