Freedom Reigns
I always trust research and projections made by Scott Rasmussen. He and his father founded ESPN, back in the early days of cable television; that turned out well. He then founded Rasmussen Reports; that company still bears his name, but he left more than a decade ago. He now conducts research through his Rasmussen Media Group for the Napolitan Institute, which he founded.
His latest research of registered voters in this country asked a very simple—but apparently complex—question…namely, “Which is more important—Freedom or Equality?”
Two-thirds of us, 66 percent, said freedom is more important than equality…with 28 percent choosing equality and the remaining 6 percent not sure.
Quite a distinction based on political preference, however…while 81 percent of Republican voters said freedom is more important than equality, Democrats are pretty evenly divided—only 52 percent choose freedom, while 44 percent said equality.
And here’s a scary result…among voters under age 35, there is a similar even split…only 53 percent of those younger voters chose freedom over equality, with 46 percent choosing equality. Given the poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percent, that’s a statistical dead heat. While older voters strongly preferred freedom…the trend is of concern and helps explain so much of what’s wrong today—the number of young people who believe in socialism over capitalism, who call for the end of Israel and Jews generally, etc.
The divide between men and women is not terribly great…73 percent of men and 60 percent of women believe freedom is more important than equality.
Napolitan News Service notes that here we are, nearly 250 years after the founding of America, and 58 percent of voters see a conflict between freedom and equality. Yes, a large majority picks freedom given that choice…but given the data, for how much longer?
