Americans Still Agree With Declaration of Independence (Only 70%)

Rasmussen ^ | July 2, 2012 | Staff

[C19fan]

With Independence Day just around the corner, most Americans still strongly agree with the central tenets of the document that declared the nation's independence from Great Britain 236 years ago.

The Declaration of Independence, ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, asserts that “governments derive their only just powers from the consent of the governed.” A new Rasmussen Reports national survey finds that 70% of American Adults agree with that statement, up from 66% last year and up from 56% in 2008. Just 13% now disagree with this assertion, but 17% are undecided.

[C19fan]

Looks like King Obama at least has rekindled appreciation for the Founding. You appreciate something when it is taken away from you. Who the hell are the 30% who don't agree. I would love to see a partisan breakdown because I think a large portion of them are Progressives who hate the founding documents and believe it is their divine right to rule over us since we are so stupid and incompetent to take care of ourselves.

[randog]

Who the hell are the 30% who don't agree.

Typically people that like to assume the cloak of faux-intelligence by simply being a contrarian.

[originalbuckeye]

Look like 30% have been well schooled by the Leftist Academe that populate our institutions of higher learning. THEY ARE WRONG! We will fight for the Liberty that our founding documents guarantee us!

[Gay State Conservative]

Who the hell are the 30% who don't agree

I'll give you a hint...

Cambridge,Manhattan,Chicago,Madison,Berkeley,SEIU,AFSCME,La Raza,Sharpton,Bill Ayers,"Reverend" Wright...

Did I mention the ABA?

[Texas Fossil]

just 13% now disagree with this assertion

About right, the Hard Left amounts to something like that number. But 17% are "undecided". How can you be undecided and be a U.S. Citizen?

[Gay State Conservative]

Ooops....forgot Martha's Vineyard.

[Terry Mross]

You described two of my relatives to a “t”.

[No Socialist]

The 30% are just fools who probably don’t even know what The Declaration is or what is in it. They only care about the paid day off from their government job.

[digger48]

Isn’t that about the same percentage as those in the 1770s who were content under the King?

[EandH Dad]

Who are the 30%? Where are they and how well armed are they?

[WilliamRobert]

17% undecided, well let’s see freedom or bondage, gee if I could only make up my mind. Clueless dolts.

[C19fan]

I doubt many of the 30% even held a firearm in their life.

[Farmer Dean]

That 17% thing bothers me too.Must be the JAFO class in America.

[Texas Fossil]

Wonder what the total percent of government employees to total employment are, if you include Federal, State and Local government employees?

This ratio does affect the way people look at the function of government. If you are paid by government, where is your loyalty? To the People?

[boomop1]

Deny that 30% of their rights, then send them where they belong, Uganda.

[Gritty]

There were a lot of these folks around when the Declaration was signed, too. We called them "tories", and these traitors supported and fought for the King.

Not much has changed in 235 years, including the fact they now control the oppressive Royal government and mean to deprive us of our God given rights and turn us all into their serfs!

[PowderMonkey]

"Who the hell are the 30% who don't agree."

Typically, those who expound at great length on all things political, social, and environmental, but can't tell you who their state governor is, or who represents them in congress. Many can't even name their state capital, tell you what the 4th of July represents to Americans, or identify a portrait of George Washington. Oh, but they're real political firebrands on the cocktail party circuit. Impressing slack-jawed bimbos with their take on glowbull warming, political oppression in Tibet, and "Free Mumia, man!" "We are the 99%, man!"

[ProtectOurFreedom]

30% seems to be the constant fraction of the population who are hard-core communist redistributionists. They are the ones who think the government should forcibly take away from the producers to give to the parasites, liberty and freedom be damned. If only there were a way to get all of these internal enemies to relocate to the people’s paradises of North Korea or Cuba.

[Elsiejay]

To what extent is our Declaration of Independence used in our government schools as a teaching device; our children being imbued with an understanding that this is the foundational, defining proclamation of the identity of the U.S.A., the open acknowledgment to ourselves and to all the world of the source of our rights?

Even more importantly, as a parent I failed to dioscuss and explain this to my children. And I suspect that few of us do much better.

[driftless2]

They’re starting off with the wrong question(s). I’m willing to bet that a sizable percentage of Dem voters do not know there was a declaration of independence, when it happened, who we won our independence from, and other particulars. I’m not trying to be flippant...I’ll bet there’s millions of Obama-voters who are that ignorant.