USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll: 74 percent of Americans back Ashcroft’s anti-terror laws

The American people overwhelmingly support post-9/11 anti-terrorism legislation, with recent polls dealing decisive blows to left-wing and libertarian-GOP activists who have claimed the get-tough laws are dangerous and unpopular.

A new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, conducted last week, shows huge support for President Bush’s domestic anti-terrorist fight, and gives a big victory to Attorney General John Ashcroft, who oversaw the authorship of the 2001 USA Patriot Act and follow-on legislation this year.

According to Newsweek, the poll “shows that 55 percent of the public thought the Bush administration has been ‘about right’ in restricting civil liberties to fight terrorism and that 19 percent thought it had not gone ‘far enough.’ That places an overwhelming 74 percent of the public on Ashcrofts side, one Justice official said, compared to only 21 percent who thought that the administration had gone ‘too far.’

“‘This shows exactly what we thought all alongthat the critics are in the minority,’ the official said.”

That and other recent polls appear on a new Justice Department website. That site, www.lifeandliberty.gov, was set up to educate the public about the need for new laws to combat terrorists and terrorist support networks here in the United States. Ashcroft recently completed a nationwide tour to dispel myths about the laws, and the polls surely show that the US public is on his side.

A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll shows that 55 percent of registered voters think the USA Patriot Act is “a good thing for America.”

An August 28 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows that the public still strongly supports President Bush’s job in Iraq, despite new problems and concerns that the administration does not have an adequate postwar policy, and that 57 percent of Americans agree with the president that the Iraq operation is part of the war on terror and not a separate military action.

See also:

“The Department of Justice defends the Patriot Act” by Barbara Comstock, Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice.

“Attorney General Ashcroft speaks about the Patriot Act,” Boise, Idaho, August 25, 2003.