46% of voters believe America does not live up to its equality standard

America is founded on the idea of ‘all men created equal.” However, 46 percent of voters believe America does not live up to that founding ideal.

Full Transcript:

Scott Rasmussen  0:08  

Good morning, Scott Rasmussen here. Welcome to my podcast: Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. The last couple of days, I've taken a look at some issues that could have a big impact on the presidential election this year. I took a look at the economy and the civil rights issues and suggested some markers we might want to watch to see which way they're trending, to see which way the winds are blowing and which candidate might gain or lose based on that. On the economy, I suggested that it was the question of personal finances that we should be watching, not how people feel about the economy in general or the economy in theory, but are their personal finances getting better or worse. And right now, they're sort of evenly divided on that. Yesterday in terms of talking about the civil rights issue, I pointed out that it's helping the Biden campaign right now by focusing attention on one of President Trump's biggest weaknesses. But there's still a danger for the Biden campaign if the issue begins to shift from civil rights to law and order, that this could be an issue that hurts Biden. And on top of that, there's a real danger that some of the people who are protesting the most loudly for civil rights are also attacking American history. And bluntly, most Americans are proud of our nation. Most of them are proud of our history. 

So, that could be some dangerous territory. But today, I'm going to take a look at a longer-term issue: the question of equality. You know, one of our founding ideals. The Declaration of Independence said that we're all created equal and that's something Americans really embrace and believe is important. On the other hand, we're not sure that we're doing all that great job of living up to it and that brings us right to today's number of the day: 46 is the number of the day. 46% of voters nationwide say we're not doing a very good job of living up to the founding ideal of equality. Now, just over half, 52%, say, yeah, you know, we're doing okay, maybe not great, but we're doing okay. So, you've got this divide, you know, but there's a strong belief, a strong bit of common ground on the recognition that equality, true equality, is very important to being an American or to what America is and should be. And yet 46% don't think we're doing very well on it. That provides some real opportunities for moving our nation forward in the coming decade. And I'll talk about that, in the B-block along with some ideas of how we might measure the progress that we need to make. While you're waiting for that, please take a moment, share this podcast with your friends, and sign up, subscribe to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day.

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott. And today's number is 46. 46% of voters nationwide say we're not doing a very good job of living up to our nation's founding ideal of equality. You know, and this is really important. Alexis de Tocqueville, when he came to America and wrote his classic study about democracy in America. And he was trying to explain to Europeans what this strange new thing going on in America was all about, the very first thing he wrote about was equality, you know, a certain perception of equality. And he knew, obviously very well, that there were differences in wealth. He also knew and clearly recognized the trouble that the racial inequality would eventually bring to our nation. And he noted at that time, obviously, there was a gap between our professed desire for equality and the institution of slavery. But having said all that Tocqueville talked about a sense of equality being one of the most important things to understand and recognize about America. And I think what he meant was, you know, that we all have equal respect in society, that we're equal participants in a political process and a nation. It doesn't, you know, in defining exactly what that looks and feels like is tough at times. But you know, it's also something very, very important. You want to live in a nation where the same rules apply to everybody. Right now, unfortunately, there's a growing sense, an awareness that that's not always the case. Again, that's why 46% of voters say we're not doing a very good job of living up to our standard of equality, our ideal of equality. 

Now, you know, this is something that we're talking about right now in the racial context, but it could apply to other categories as well. Let's start, though, with a very simple set of numbers that help show how wide this gap is. We asked voters about whether, for certain groups of people, the United States was one of the best places in the world to live or one of the worst, or was it somewhere in between? And we asked about white voters. Well, overwhelmingly, 60% said it's one of the best places in the world to live, a pure white person. Only 6% said it was one of the worst. When we asked about black Americans, while the numbers were staggeringly different. Only 34% said the United States is one of the best places in the world to live if you're a black person. 22% said it's one of the worst. And, I should point out, the numbers for Hispanics were pretty similar. Now, there's other ways you can look at this. Just to give a sense of it when we talked about gender, 64% say it's one of the best places to be a man. Only 42% said it's one of the best places in the country to live if you're a woman. So, you know, there's lots of measures of equality. What I would suggest is that the way we want to think about how where we want to end up is we want everybody to have the same. We want every segment of society to feel that welcome. We want the number of people who say this is one of the best places for white Americans to live to be roughly the same as a number who say it's one of the best places in the world for black people to live. It's one of the best places in the world for men to live; one of the best places in the world for women to live. You know, when we begin to get to that point where, first of all, you know, there's common agreement that we are really blessed and lucky to live in the United States of America and that perception is shared across all groups. That's really encouraging. That's a goal, you know, that's going to take a lot longer than I'll be on this earth to achieve and probably a lot longer than my children and grandchildren will be around. But moving towards that sense of equality, moving towards a sense that we want to create a nation where everybody here feels that it's not just best for people like them. They have the same view of people who aren't like them. 

Now, right now, you know, we are a long way from that. And one of the differences is the way we look at it: from a partisan perspective. Right now, today, 79% of Republicans believe the nation is doing okay, at least somewhat well, in living up-- in terms of living up to the ideal of equality. Just 47% of Independents and only 35% of Democrats agree with that assessment. So, you've got a challenging dynamic in that one party is saying, you know, 'what's the big deal? You know, what's going on?' If you are an African American in today's society and you see one of the parties saying, 'don't need to worry about it, we're already doing fine.' Well, that helps explain why Democrats do so well with minority voters. But again, the point here is not where the divides are right now or how they're going to impact this election. I think the larger goal should be to focus on creating a land where it's the best place in the world for everybody to be. After, in the C-block, I'm going to talk about a different aspect of this. And it's something we're starting to see in lots and lots of data. In addition to the typical partisan divide, in addition to the gaps that we're talking about in this question of equality, I'm also going to be looking at a gap between white and non-white Democrats. And again, this is showing up in a lot of data lately, and it certainly applies to the question we're talking about today. I'll be back with the C-block in just a moment. And as always, if you have questions about the data or the numbers or where they came from, or the crosstabs, go to ScottRasmussen.com. You'll find all the details there. 

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott. And the number today is 46. 46% of American voters today say we're not doing a very good job of living up to our founding ideal of equality. And, you know, as I pointed out, there's a strong belief that for white Americans, this is one of the best places in the world to live. But people aren't so sure, that's the truth for black and Hispanic Americans. You know, I think it's going to be a great time at some point in the future when those numbers equal out, but a long way to go until we get there. The final number I want to bring up today has to do with the Democratic Party. You know, the Democratic Party is, there are certain divides between white Democrats and African American and Hispanic Democrats and on this question of equality is one of the areas we see a lot of these differences crop up. And where is it today? Well, among white Democrats, just 26% say the US is doing fairly well in terms of living up to our ideal of equality. Among non-white Democrats, black and Hispanic Democrats primarily, the number is much more optimistic. 40% of non-white Democrats say, 'you know what, the US is doing at least somewhat well in terms of living up to its ideal of equality.' Not quite sure where that difference is going to play out in practical politics anytime soon. But I think it's something to keep an eye on and to watch because sometimes, the gaps within political parties are even more significant than the gaps between parties.

I'll be back tomorrow with the Number of the Day where we take a look at where we might be going from here. How optimistic are Americans on the topic of equality and in terms of our other noble founding ideals. For now, I'm Scott Rasmussen. This is Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day and I hope that you have a great day.