In America’s divided political environment, we usually hear that Republicans are for big business while Democrats are for big government. 

Which is why the recent Gallup poll might be surprising to some. As it turns out, when asked to choose between “big government,” “big business,” or “big labor,” 69% of Americans believe that “big government” is the bigger threat to the country’s future:

When examined by political affiliation, 88% of Republicans said that big government is the biggest threat — not surprising. At the same time, the majority of Democrats (53%) said the same thing — a bit surprising: 

As you might notice, there’s an interesting trend that perhaps instances the growing partisanship on this issue over the past 15 years. After the 2001 recession and various corporate scandals, Republicans and Democrats converged in assigning more of a threat to big business (though still not as much as big government). However, during the most recent recession in 2009, a majority of Democrats saw big business as a greater threat, while the percentage of Republicans who saw big government as the greater threat continued to increase.