A Real Partisan Split
I saw the Heartland Institute-Rasmussen Poll last Thursday and thought perhaps I had misread it. Surely these weren’t the findings, not in the United States of America.
But this is what the poll of more than 1,000 likely U.S. votes said…that those who identify as Democrats want some pretty punitive actions taken against people thanks to COVID-19.
A majority of Democrats in the survey—55 percent—would support a proposal for the federal or state government to fine fellow citizens who did not get a COVID vaccination. Overall, 58 percent opposed it…putting Democrats far out of step with citizens generally.
And it gets more divisive. 59 percent of Democrats in the survey are just fine with a government policy requiring you to remain confined to your home at all time, except for true emergencies, if you don’t get the jab. 79 percent of Republicans are against such a limitation on freedom; so are 71 percent of non-party voters.
Let me restate all that…a majority of Democrat likely voters want you to be fined and confined to your home if you don’t get the vaccination. Huge majorities of independents and Republicans think otherwise.
This split between an ever-more-radical Democrat voter base and the rest of the country is getting wider and more strident.
Witness this—nearly half, 48 percent, of Democrats think you should be fined or even imprisoned by government if you publicly question vaccines in social or traditional media. That is the textbook definition of a First Amendment violation.
Even scarier, 45 percent of likely Democrat voters favor government requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated locations or facilities if they don’t get the jab. These are likely the same people who think rounding up people in this country during World War II was bad…but since COVID is the enemy, it’s just fine.
Similarly scary numbers are associated with how Democrats in the survey feel about removing children from their parents’ custody based on vaccination status…and tracking you with a digital device to make sure the unvaccinated are quarantined or socially distant from others.
Now again, the overall survey numbers tell a very different story. But when a majority of voters affiliated with one of the two major political parties take stands that are so clearly affronts to civil liberty and freedom…it’s of great concern.
