Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for August 17, 2017
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
August 17, 2017: Sixty-four percent (64%) of American adults believe that the increasing number of people of different races and ethnicities makes America a better place to live. A Pew Research study found that 29% think it doesn’t make much difference one way or the other. Only 5% believe that increasing diversity is bad for America.
This is consistent with results from an earlier Number of the Day showing that 84% believe accepting people of diverse racial and religious backgrounds is important to being truly American. In terms of being truly American, three other items also were viewed as important by more than 80% of voters: respecting American political institutions and laws (89%), having American citizenship (88%), and speaking English (83%).
While America was founded on the ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence, there has always been a segment of the population that rejected a commitment to freedom, equality, and self-governance. John Calhoun, a leading defender of slavery, was frustrated that admiration for the Declaration had “spread far and wide, and fixed itself deeply in the public mind.”
Calhoun rejected the ideal of equality and believed that black people did not deserve freedom. In a recent column, I wrote: “Such despicable views made Calhoun a traitor to America’s founding ideals just as surely as Benedict Arnold was a traitor to the young nation in the War of Independence.”[1]
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
- August 16, 2017 – 33 percent of Americans support single-payer healthcare plan
- August 15, 2017 – 2.4 million people have only one insurance option on healthcare exchanges
- August 14, 2017 – $31 million spent on 2017 ballot measures
- August 11, 2017 – 451 times police departments forced to rehire fired officers
- August 10, 2017 – 50.6% of votes In Election 2016 were cast by millennials and Gen-Xers
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia weekdays at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Click here to check out the latest update.
The Number of the Day is broadcast on local stations across the country. An archive of these broadcasts can be found here.
Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
Ballotpedia is the nonprofit, nonpartisan Encyclopedia of American Politics.
See also
Footnotes
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
