Wisconsin: Dueling conservative villains

The polling thus far on Wisconsin has been surprisingly good for the public sector Unions.  Reading PEW's recent polling, this question struck me:

2/2-7/11

"How about when you hear of a disagreement between state or local governments and unions that represent government workers, is your first reaction to side with the governments or to side with the unions?"

Unions 44%
Governments 38%
Both/Neither 3%
Depends 5%
Unsure/Refused 10%


Could it be that having spent decades building up reflexive antipathy to government among the populace, the right has set this fight up with the public predisposed to side with the Unions?  I know they've made considerable efforts to demonize the latter too, but nowhere near what they've done in recent times to attack government.

Not to disregard all the other factors that affect public opinion on these things, but the particular phrasing of that question pits unions v government and in general the public is inclined to side with the unions.  It would be nice to think that is partly the doing of the right wing noise machine working against itself for once.