62% of voters are proud of America’s history

What this number could mean for civil rights and the Biden campaign.

Full Transcript:

Scott Rasmussen  0:09  

Hey there, Scott Rasmussen here. Welcome to my podcast: Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. Yesterday, I talked a little bit about the economy and how it might impact this election season. And more specifically, I talked about, you know, what I'm going to be watching as an indicator to measure the changing public mood. And while we all talk about how the voters view the economy, I suggested that maybe a better approach is to see how they rate their own personal finances. That's a better indication of how they might vote. 

Well, today, I'm going to shift to a different topic: civil rights. It's an issue that none of us expected to be, you know, a dominant issue in election 2020, but it burst onto the scene after the killing of George Floyd. And I'm going to suggest, you know, I'm going to throw out some numbers to talk about, to help us think about what to watch. Because right now so far without any doubt, this issue, the rise of civil rights issues and the talk of racial inequality, has benefited Joe Biden and the Democrats. It highlights weaknesses of President Trump and his campaign. At the same time, it is possible that this could turn. It is possible that by November, the civil rights issue will become more of a law and order issue or take on a different cultural meaning and if that happens, it could end up being good news and helping to fuel the comeback for President Trump.

The number that I want to start with to discuss this is today's number of the day: 62 is the number. 62% of voters nationwide are proud of America's history. Not just proud to be an American because about eight out of 10 people say they're proud to be an American, and, by the way, eight out of ten say they're coming patriotic, but 62% are proud of America's history. To some that's unfathomable. And that fact, the fact that some people can't imagine why anybody can be proud of our history is a key thing to watch as election 2020 approaches. Now, I'll be back talking about the implications of this in the B-block and while you're waiting, please take a moment to share this podcast with your friends. And subscribe to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day.

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Scott Rasmussen  4:08  

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott. And today's number is 62. 62% of voters say they're proud of America's history. And again, not just proud of America, but proud of our history. And this is a significant number that helps draw attention to the potential dangers the civil rights protests pose to Joe Biden's campaign. And, look, we have to be really clear so far, those protests, the focus on the issue of civil rights, has been very, very good for the Biden campaign. It does highlight Donald Trump's weaknesses. But it doesn't mean it will be stay that way until November. Why? Well, you know, you have the New York Times coming out with the 1619 project, which basically argues, but all that stuff we were taught to believe, that America was founded for the noble ideals of freedom, equality, community, self-governance. All that was hogwash that really everything about America's founding was all about, always about, racial oppression, white supremacy. That racism is the real founding legacy of America. If you believe that, you're not going to get along too well with that 62% who are proud of America's history. In fact, the two sides have a hard time talking to each other. If you really believe that America's founding was all rooted in white supremacy and racism, you can't imagine how anybody would be proud of that history. In fact, you'd probably consider people who thought that deplorable or maybe you would consider them white supremacists. And that is precisely the challenge or the risk to Democrats right now. If the civil rights protests continue and begin to take a different turn. Again, right now helping the Biden campaign, but if all of a sudden, if the image becomes, wait a minute, these people, these protesters, aren't really just asking for equality, which Americans overwhelmingly believe we should have. They want to have a society where white Americans and black Americans are treated equally. If the impression rose that these protests are about more than equality, they're really about trashing America's history, well, that's going to create some challenges and some conflicts for the Biden campaign. It's one reason, by the way, you see Donald Trump talking about statues now, perhaps is a little bit of a proxy for this larger debate.

 And look, we have to be clear, not everybody thinks American history is something to be proud of. You know, black voters, understandably, don't. Two-thirds of them say no, no, we're not proud of America's history and I get that. I mean, history for the most part was written as white history as if black people didn't exist. And that was the way the story was told for far too long. But having said that, if you were to take the, you know, if the dominant theme of the civil rights movement, the civil rights protests that we're seeing becomes, you need to accept the New York Times 1619 version of history, well, then, the protests are going to be in a lot of trouble. They're going to find that they're going to antagonize a lot of people and not make a whole lot of progress. And it's about more than just the history, the notion of history. And look, why do people feel, how can you feel good about America's history? You feel good about it by saying America's history has always been a process of change and improvement and in the very beginning of our nation, you know, slavery was accepted everywhere in the world. And it's not perfect and it may have taken us too long to get here but you know, we're making progress. I mean, there is a positive of the story that most Americans accept. But it's beyond that. If the civil rights protests go beyond saying, you know, American history is bad, there's a danger that they slip more broadly into anti-American rhetoric. America is bad. And look, that's, there's a problem there. 78% of voters are proud to be an American, you don't want to tamper with that emotion too much. 52% say they're very patriotic and another 28% are somewhat patriotic. Now it's true, older voters have that attitude more than younger voters. And it's precisely those older voters who are at risk to the Biden campaign. You know, we talked earlier, I've talked a lot about how the senior citizens weren't as enthusiastic for Donald Trump as they are for a typical Republican or as they were four years ago. And if you had to pick an issue that would push these back into Donald Trump's camp, it would be: attack America's history, attack their pride in being an American, attack their patriotism. The only group that has skepticism about this are the, you know, 18 to 24, 18 to 29-year-old voters. And these folks, first of all, they're never going to vote for Donald Trump. And secondly, you know, the question is whether they will show up and vote. 

So, one of the things that I'm going to be watching for is how aware-- how the Biden campaign and Democrats in general, and the media control this discussion about the civil rights protests. If they focus on equality and racial injustice, and I'm challenging America to live up to our noble founding ideas. First of all, that's great for America. I mean, that's what we should be doing. We should be challenging ourselves to live up to those ideas. Secondly, that would be very good for the Biden campaign because it will be something that could stand up for and say, 'yes, this is the kind of country we want to create. We want to be more like the country founded on the ideals of freedom, equality and community and self-governance.' If on the other hand, the rhetoric gets to be 'no, American history was bad. America is an evil country and we need to start all over again with a whole new transformation of our society.' That message would be very helpful to Donald Trump. 

I'm going to be back with, you know, another aspect of this in just a moment in the C-block. As I do, all of this information, I'm talking about all these statistics about patriotism, about being proud of America's history and all of these things, you can find the data at ScottRasmussen.com. There's information there about the survey methodology and the cross tabs and you can look at the information yourself to get a sense of the impact it might have an election 2020. But keep in mind, the general theme is pretty simple. The more that the protests focus on equality, on calling our nation to live up to its founding ideals, the better it is for Joe Biden. The more they slip into saying, no, American history is something you should be ashamed of. Well, in that case, it's good for Donald Trump. I'll be back in just a moment.

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott, and the number today is 62. 62% of voters nationwide are proud of America's history. And this is an important fact to keep in mind when you consider election 2020. You know, if we see the protests that are going on right now on civil rights area, not on civil rights issues, if those protests they focused on challenging America to live up to its founding ideals, wow, that's great. It's great for the nation and it's going to be great for the Biden campaign because it highlights Donald Trump's weakness. However, if those protests and if the messaging from them slips over into saying, no, America, American history, is something you should be ashamed of, well, the minute you go into that kind of territory, the minute you begin to help President Trump. In fact, you know, that's part of the reason he's talking about statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Because these are people that Americans revere. And these are people that Americans recognize are flawed, but have contributed greatly to the land that we live in today. And any political effort that begins to attack those people and tell us that we should be ashamed of them, is going to run into some serious headwinds. And I'm going to close with just one other aspect of this to kind of make the point. 48% of voters nationwide say the United States is a good role model for the rest of the world to follow. Only 35% say it's not. Americans are proud of their country. Americans love their country. They love our heritage. They love the good things about it. They recognize it is flawed and imperfect. But the way to fix that is to address the flaws and the imperfections, not to say that the America itself is the problem. I'm Scott Rasmussen. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another number the day and until then, have a great day.