45% of voters expect progress towards equality over coming decade

Americans might not think we’re where we should be in term of equality, but many expect us to get there soon.

Full transcript:

Scott Rasmussen  0:09  

Happy Friday, Scott Rasmussen here. Welcome to my podcast, Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. And you know, once again this Friday, I just want to take a moment and reflect on how lucky we are to be alive right now. Look, I understand we're going through a, you know, a terrible, unprecedented pandemic, the coronavirus is upset everything. We're going through an economic crisis. We're going through some civil rights tensions as people become more aware of the need to, to address some of the racial inequalities in our nation. And yes, we're also stuck in the middle of a presidential election where everybody gets angry about everything and people say the other side, you know, are hateful and spiteful and everything else but they don't see the both sides are playing the same kind of games. But despite all that, we are lucky to be alive right now, you know and last week I, I picked up that theme from a sung a song sung by Eliza Schuyler, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, you know, talking about that show. But the reason I think we're so lucky to be alive is because in America we live in a land where our nation was founded on a bunch of noble ideals, freedom, equality, community, democracy, self governance, all of these things. We've never lived up to them perfectly. You know, and we never will. No humans, no nation can ever achieve perfection. But I can say without doubt, that on all of those fronts and all of the noble founding ideals that started our nation, we're better off today than we were 200 years ago or 150 years ago, doesn't mean we should be satisfied. In fact, the gap between our ideals and where we are as a nation is precisely the reason I think it's a great time to be alive because we can do something about it. 

Like the generations that came before and passed on a great legacy to us, we can now do the same. And it is because we can we can make life better for our children and grandchildren for the coming generations. By moving our nation, one step closer to our founding ideals. [...] right now in America, the big challenges on living up to the ideal of equality, and we're going to spend a lot of time talking and we have spent a lot of time talking about that this week. Talked about how you know, 60% of people believe that the United States is one of the best places to live if you're a white person, but only 34% believe that if you're a black person. And you know it will be great to someday know there's going to be a time when that gap is gone. When people think that our our nation is a great place for everybody to live. I mean, that's something we should be striving for. It's that gap that that sense of progress that makes everything so exciting. 

And so today's number of the day, taps into that just a little bit. I've talked about earlier in the week some of the concerns about how we're not living up to equality as well as we should, even though we think it's very important. Well, today, I want to talk about the fact that there's a little bit of optimism. 45 is the number of the day. 45% of voters nationwide believe that over the coming decade, we'll be doing a better job of living up to our goal to our ideal of equality. Only 19% think we'll go in the opposite direction. In the vblock. I'm going to look into that number, tear it apart a little bit. And while you're waiting for that, please take a moment, share this podcast with your friends. And subscribe to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day.

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Scott Rasmussen  5:29  

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott and the number today is 45. 45% of voters nationwide believe that over the coming decade, we're going to make progress, we're gonna do a better job of living up to our founding ideal of equality. You know, that's not an overwhelming number. It's not like the 86% to think equality is very important. But it's a significant number and especially when you consider that only 19% think that we'll end up doing a little worse. 

When I when I dig deeper into the numbers, I think the thing that excites me most you know, and again, it's this sense of we live in a nation that's never perfect but always changing, always striving to move a little closer to our ideals. When I look at these numbers, I find there's only 8% - 08 - 8%, about one out of 12 Americans who are really convinced things are bad on this front. There's only 8% who say that, you know, we're not doing a very good job of living up to our ideal of equality. And things are going to get even worse over the coming decade. So you know, look, 8% of people are really down. A lot of them probably don't agree with America's founding ideals. They're not as comfortable with freedom. They're not as comfortable all the things that we talked about with those ideals. But still, while 8% is a lot of people, it's a fairly small segment of society. 

Now there's another 17% who say, you know, we're, we're not doing so well right now and I'm not sure if we're gonna get better or not over the coming decade, things might just stay about the same. You know, and we need to work, we need to convince these people that progress is happening. Not by rhetoric, not by saying you guys are wrong, but by moving our nation closer to equality. And, and what this really tells us again, is most people have a sense that, okay, we're not perfect as a nation. We have challenges, but we are making progress, we can make progress, we will make progress. And I should also point out that it's not just on the question of equality, you know, that people have doubts, you know, just over six out of 10 people say we're doing a good job of living up to our founding ideal of freedom. And but again, people expect progress. And no matter how I look at it, no matter how I think about where we are right now. 

I keep coming back to that sense: we are lucky to be alive right now. History is happening. All of the challenges. Everything that is happening around us right now that was started by the coronavirus pandemic, is shaking up the status quo. And it's giving us an incredible opportunity to make history happen right now. And I hope and I believe with all my heart, that America is going to be moving closer and closer to its founding ideals to living up to those ideals over the next decade. And what I what I'm excited about for our generation, is that the ideal that we'll make progress on is the ideal of equality. 

I'll be back with a C block was some closing thoughts in just a moment. And as always want to remind you, if you want to see some of the numbers, the specific questions, the wording, whatever, cross tabs, you can go to ScottRasmussen.com, find the information there. I'll be back with the C block in just a moment.

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott. And the number today is 45. When it comes to living up to our founding ideal of rquality. Over the next decade, 45% of American voters think we'll be doing better. They think we'll be making progress in the next decade, only 19% think things will be worse. And there's a subset, there's a very small group of voters - 8%, who say, you know what, we're not doing a very good job right now. And things are gonna get even worse. And again, most of them are probably people who are kind of uncomfortable with the notion of America's founding idea there. There are people who are really unhappy with the fact that America has done so well for so long. Well, guess what? We shouldn't be fighting these people. We shouldn't be trying to convince them that they're wrong. Pointing out what's happened in the past that they misunderstood or are pointing out that they're misreading history in some way. No, what we should do to convince these people, these 8% who think our nation is doing a lousy job on equality and it's getting worse. Well, what we should do, it's just simply prove them wrong by our actions as individuals, as society, as communities. Begin to move closer to our nation's five founding ideals. Keep making progress, keep proving that the idea of America, of moving towards those founding ideals is real. And as we move more and more towards making the idea of the ideal of equality a reality for all Americans. As we move closer to a time when people see the United States as a place, not just a great place for white Americans, but a great place for anybody who wants to come here and share in the blessings of liberty, who wants to share our nation's founding commitments to freedom, equality, community and self governance. The more that we prove that this truly is a land where we are all created equal, the more we will convince the skeptics. I'm Scott Rasmussen. Have a great weekend. Be back Monday.