A recent National Journal/Heartland Monitor poll finds that Americans don’t believe that Obama’s administration is able to make a positive difference in their lives. By a margin of 46 percent to 25 percent, respondents say the actions of the Obama administration “decrease opportunity” for people to get ahead.

On a number of key issues Obama claims to focus on, respondents said America is on the wrong track:

• Reducing poverty
• Improving access to healthcare and reducing costs
• Growing the economy and creating jobs
• Keeping a college education affordable
• Making it easier to start and run a business
• Improving the quality of K-12 education

The new poll shows that Americans reject President Obama’s bigger government approach to everything. Seventy percent believe the country needs “major changes.” But only 19 percent say that change should be led by the federal government — 42 percent say the change should be led by “average Americans.”

According to the poll, people still believe average Americans can affect their neighborhood (90 percent), and the country (71 percent). By a margin of 74 percent to 18 percent, people say “average Americans” have been more responsible for major social changes than government leadership.

Worse for the President and his Obamacrats, the contrary, the poll respondents cut across the usual partisan divides. The poll was evenly split between Republicans (23 percent) and Democrats (25 percent) and included plenty of Independents (47 percent). Almost half (47 percent) identified themselves as middle class. And was it evenly split among males (49 percent) and females (51 percent).

Daniel Garza, Executive Director of The LIBRE Initiative, gets it:

“Is there a more serious indictment of the agenda of this White House than the clear belief by so many Americans that this administration is reducing opportunity rather than expanding it? People are right to be wary of big government and its power to stifle opportunity. Americans are looking more and more to individuals and community groups as the drivers of change and social Welfare. While our faith in each other is one of the things that makes America great, we should be deeply concerned that big government policies increasingly stand in the way of individual well-being, success and prosperity.

[. . .]

It’s far past time for a change in direction – one that limits spending, balances our Budget, reduces excess Regulation, and promotes economic opportunity. Average Americans are calling for it – and they will ultimately be the ones who insist on it.”

Poll results such as this and organizations such as The LIBRE Initiative offer hope that Obama’s ever bigger, more intrusive and stifling government can and will be turned back.

The 2014 midterm election is starting to feel more and more like 2010.