STANLEY NOTE: This is what we are up against. A tough job just got tougher.
Thought I would share these results with you all. Small wonder the government
is able to so easily usurp our Constitutional rights. (Bolds, underscores
and
italics added by sender)
Long Live the PROTECTORS of the CONSTITUTION,
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Tuesday, July 25, 2000 Only half would vote for Constitution
Poll: 22% of Americans against founding document, 27% not sure by Jon E.
Dougherty
In a finding that shocked some observers, a new poll says that barely half
of
Americans - just 51 percent - would vote for passage of the U.S.
Constitution
if the same document approved over two centuries ago were presented in
ballot
form today. The survey, conducted by
HREF="http://www.portraitofamerica.com/html/poll-1066.html">Portrait of
America and released
Tuesday, said 22 percent of respondents would vote against the Constitution
while
another 27 percent said they were not sure whether they would support it.
POA
pollsters said Tuesday's results did not differ significantly from a similar
poll
conducted by the polling firm a year ago. That
HREF="http://www.portraitofamerica.com/html/poll-467.html">survey,
conducted
in June
1999, showed slightly less support for the Constitution. Then, only 49.5
percent
of respondents said they would support the Constitution if a referendum were
held. Twenty-three percent said they would vote against it while the same
number
- 27 percent - said they weren't sure. "The lack of support for the
Constitution probably stems from the high levels of public disgust with
government and
politics today," said Scott Rasmussen, President of Rasmussen Research, last
June. "Recent surveys have found that 72 percent of Americans now view the
federal government as a special interest group that looks out primarily for
its
own interests. Only one-out-of-four Americans believe their own
representative
in Congress is the best person for the job. Less than 40 percent think the
government today reflects the will of the people," he added. In Tuesday's
survey,
only 35 percent of respondents said the federal government operates under
the
Constitution, while an additional 48 percent said Washington, D.C.,
routinely
flouts its constitutional limitations. "Although a majority, 56 percent,
believe the Constitution is the best way to run our country," the new poll
said,
"37 percent feel it needs to be updated to reflect major societal changes of
the
past 200 years." Portrait of America said women and younger adults were more
inclined to support constitutional revisions, while men and older Americans
were more likely to support the Constitution as-is. In other results:
51 percent of the country says Congress should pay for 100,000 additional
teachers in local school systems, even though the Constitution does not
authorize
the government to provide such funding;
Only 36 percent believe Congress should follow the Constitution;
54 percent choose to support the Constitution and its restrictions rather
than a congressional override when asked about government funding for the
arts;
53 percent of younger adults and 45 percent of women prefer to support art
funding even if it is not authorized by the Constitution;
81 percent of respondents said First Amendment protections of freedom of
speech are generally good for the country while 7 percent disagree;
64 percent said if they could modify the Constitution they would give less
power to Congress while 12 percent said they would grant Congress more
power.
Also in the poll, POA said 63 percent of respondents believe Congress is
using
the Constitution as an excuse to ban school prayer; only a fourth of the
population think lawmakers and political leaders really believe the
Constitution
bans such prayers. Thirty-five percent said dropping the Second Amendment
from
the Constitution and making personal firearms ownership unlawful would make
the
U.S. a safer country, while 42 percent said the nation would become more
dangerous. Another 16 percent said eliminating the Second Amendment would
have
no
impact on safety. To read more articles like this one, visit
HREF="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/">
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