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A Gallup poll finds 37 percent of Americans support “a government that provides only the most basic government functions,” roughly the share of the vote needed to win a three-way election contest.

Gallup asked Americans “where would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means you think the government should do only those things necessary to provide the most basic government functions, and 5 means you think the government should take active steps in every area it can to try and improve the lives of its citizens?”

37 percent responded with “one” or “two,” and increase of four percent who responded so in 2010.

35 percent responded with “four” or “five,” “prefer(ing) an activist government that tries in every way to improve the lives of its citizens,” a drop of one percent since 2010.  The remaining 27 percent lie in the middle, responding with “three”.

Overall, “a majority of Americans (56%) believe that government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses, while 39% hold the view that government should do more to solve the nation’s problems.”  Gallup found “independents tilt toward the ‘too much’ view.”

A deeper look at the polling numbers reveals more good news for Libertarians.

When asked to describe their own political views, 18 percent called themselves “pure liberal,” 19 percent said “populist” and 10 percent were “undesignated.”

Leading the pack, 26 percent said “libertarian” and 27 percent said “pure conservative.”

“Libertarian” and “populist” were the only two labels to increase in popularity since last year.  “Libertarian” is at its most popular since Gallup began asking the question in 1993, and it the only label to reach its highest level of popularity in the current poll.

Additionally, the 50 percent of Americans who say there is “too much” “government regulation of business and industry” is the highest share recorded since Gallup began asking the question in 1993 — a stunning rejection of the conventional wisdom.  The 57 percent who say government has “too much” power is the second-highest recorded and topped only by the 59 percent who said so in 2010.

The poll’s final question asked “would you rather have more government services if that meant more taxes, less government services in order to reduce taxes, or services and taxes about as we have them now?”  56 percent preferred less government and taxes, a vast increase of 16 percent since the initial 1993 poll recorded a response of 40 percent.

The 20 percent who preferred “more services/more taxes” in 1993 has dropped to 16 percent in 2011.  The 35 percent who wanted “services and taxes as now” has dropped to 26 percent this year.

Shouldn’t Libertarian candidates have the tools and training to reach out to these millions of libertarian voters?

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