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by Warren Mass
May 22, 2019
from
TheNewAmerican Website
Image: seb_ra via iStock
Getty Images Plus
Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans think socialism would be a
good thing for
the United States, while a slim
majority - 51 percent - of those surveyed in a
Gallup Poll released on May 20
think it would be a bad thing.
The figures contrast
markedly with a Roper/Fortune survey taken in 1942, in which
25 percent of those polled described socialism as a good thing, 40
percent as a bad thing, and 34 percent did not have an opinion.
An article
published by Gallup on May 20
(2019) noted:
Previous Gallup
research shows that Americans' definition of socialism has
changed over the years, with nearly one in four now associating
the concept with social equality and 17% associating it with the
more classical definition of having some degree of government
control over the means of production.
A majority of
Democrats have said they view socialism positively in Gallup
polling since 2010, including 57% in the most recent measure in
2018.
Gallup's continuation of
its commentary on the poll results is also telling:
Gallup first asked
Americans in 1949 about their outlook on the spread of democracy
over the next 50 years. At that time, seven in 10 Americans
(72%) predicted that most countries in the world would have a
democratic government.
It's important to
note that in much of the political rhetoric of the time, the
terms democracy and capitalism were more intimately intertwined
than they are today, perhaps synonymous to many.
If Gallup's observations
are accurate, we might very well attribute the slide towards
acceptance of socialism in America and also the favorable view of
"democracy" among most Americans, to,
-
the failure of
our nation's government-controlled schools to
teach their students the proper definitions of this
"political rhetoric"
-
the abandonment
of history classes in favor of more ambiguous "social
studies" is very likely a key factor in this lack of
education
In May 2013, The New
American published a condensed version of the classic essay, "Republics
and Democracies," first delivered as a speech by
Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society, on
September 17, 1961.
Welch noted,
"By the time of the
American Revolution and Constitution, the meanings of the words
'republic' and 'democracy' had been well established and were
readily understood."
He observed that as early
as 1775, John Adams had pointed out that Aristotle (a
Greek), Livy (a Roman), and Harington (an Englishman)
all,
"define a republic to
be… a government of laws and not of men."
The essay quoted multiple
statements made by our founders indicating that their decision to
establish a republic and not a democracy (which
they warned against) was deliberate and made after much
consideration.
Knowing the difference between a republic and a democracy
is essential to understanding why socialism (to which
"democracy" invariably leads) is a complete contradiction to - and
repudiation of - the constitutional republic established by
our founders.
If more Americans
understood these terms, the results of the Gallup poll would have
been very 'different'...
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