Posted on 07/01/2002 9:47:22 PM PDT by mikeb704
Public opinion surveys are part and parcel of our instant information age. We recognize that polls can be crafted to elicit the desired results, and undeniably sometimes are, yet we Americans remain fascinated by what the rest of us think.
Sometimes, opinion surveys merely reveal how easily public opinion can be molded by what’s accepted as conventional wisdom. Last month’s ABC News poll on Watergate is an example. When asked if they knew enough about the scandal to tell the basic facts to someone else, 65 percent of participants said no. Yet almost an identical percentage, 63, simultaneously asserted that President Richard Nixon’s actions were serious enough to warrant his resignation.
So we have a lot of people who don’t know much about the scandal, but they are sure that old sonofagun Nixon should have resigned because of what he did in Watergate. Some folks simply do not want to be confused with facts. It gives ‘em a headache.
A headache is what I got when I looked at a more recent poll. Commissioned by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, respondents were provided "a number of different principles that have become a part of our core system of beliefs" and asked which one is most important to our society as a whole.
Freedom of speech was ranked first by 26 percent of those surveyed. The second assumed principle, at 20 percent, was access to affordable health care. Incredibly, at least to me, this was ahead of freedom of religion, which earned 19 percent. The next two principles, each garnering 12 percent, were the opportunity for economic advancement and the right to pursue an education. Limping into dead last was freedom of the press. Only three percent of the respondents considered that principle most important.
Are affordable health care, the opportunity for economic advancement and the right to pursue an education authentic principles? Certainly not in the word’s most commonly used definition as a fundamental truth, law or assumption. They may be desirable, but whether they’re attained or not will have limited effect on the core of our liberty.
Quite clearly, they are not in the same category as the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. For our fellow citizens to place them there is a reflection of how far we’ve strayed from the course established by the Founding Fathers. It was Benjamin Franklin who averred, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Another recent poll, this one released by Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, is even more worrying. Surveyed were American college students on their views on the war on terrorism and related issues.
If the military draft were initiated again, 37 percent of the students said they’d evade it. Another 21 percent would serve, but only if they were stationed in the U.S. Just 35 percent are willing to serve anywhere in the world.
The reason for such resistance may have been suggested in another question asked of the students. Pathetically, a mere five percent strongly agree that American values are superior to those of other nations; 71 percent disagree with that contention. Of the surveyed students, 16% think Western culture is superior to Arab culture, but 79% do not.
If you don’t accept the proposition that this is the greatest nation in the world, then it’s no surprise that you’re reluctant to defend it. Why bother?
I say thank God – no, make that THANK GOD! – that a couple of hundred years ago the United States was blessed with individuals not so open-minded, not so nonjudgmental, and not so tolerant. They knew the difference between right and wrong, and had the courage to defend the right. They weren’t interested in guaranteeing health care or economic equality, but in instituting a Republic sanctified by liberty that would survive.
During this war against terrorism it’s a good time to remember that freedom’s price is very high. A benevolent God has always blessed our Nation with people willing to pay that price so that others may live in freedom. We can only pray He will continue to do so.
Have a Glorious Fourth.
Would this be the same 60% or so that didn't want Clinton to be impeached?
Thanks!
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