Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Rasmussen Finds U.S. Voters LOVE the Market-based Economy or “Free Market”







A recent Rasmussen Poll shows an overwhelming 70% of Americans believe “a free market economy is better than one managed by the government.”Just 15% believe a government-managed economy is best. Another 15% are either undecided, don’t know or have no opinion.

Moreover, just 26% of American adults were at least “somewhat confident” that U.S. policymakers knew what they were doing with regards to the economy.

A whopping 59% of Americans agree with Ronald Reagan’s 1981 quote that “government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”

Not surprisingly, support for the market-based economy differs greatly with Party affiliation. Whereas 91% of Republicans favor a free market, along with 76% of Independents and unaffiliated voters, ONLY 49% of Democrats agree!

While 87% of Conservatives and 68% of Moderates believe a free market is better, among Liberals, the choice is far murkier. While 47% of Liberals prefer a free market, a disturbing 31% say that a government managed economy would be better.

2 comments:

Alpha Conservative Male said...

Once again the masses say ONE THING yet and VOTE ANOTHER jmk. I bet if Rasmussen was to poll the Obamatrons on the economy, I bet most of them think Obama is going to fix the free market capitalist system and not impose a socialist style system, So it comes down to Obama's cult not knowing what Obama stands for, surprise surprise surprise.

JMK said...

An interesting view Tyrone. Obama has come to appear more a PRAGMATIST than an idealist since being elected and his Chief-of-Staff (Rahm Emanuel) though highly partisan, has been far more Conservative than most urban Democrats., which is to say, at least he's Centrist.

I think a lot of Obama's core support came from very young voters who don't really hold to or understand much about economics.

Moreover, the most disturbing thing about those Rasmussen results, in my view, was that "While 47% of Liberals prefer a free market, a disturbing 31% say that a government managed economy would be better."

Think about that! Nearly a THIRD of American Liberals support a government-run economy! WoW!!!

I think the Obama campaign benefitted from two major things, (1) disaffected Conservatives - the Rockefeller-wing of the GOP made sure no real Conservatives (Huckabee and Thompson) had no chance....and (2) McCain's ineptitude. The economic crisis changed the entire election matrix and McCain didn't seem to realizze that. He started to do the right thing (suspending his campaign to forge a better deal over the stimulus package), but failed miserably by turning his "return to D.C." into phony photo-op. The Conservatives in Congress wanted a Bill that would earmark those monies to LENDING only (no bonuses and not to be used for buying out other banks)....McCain COULD'VE done that, but he didn't and he disaffected even more Conservatives by failing. He compounded that error by responding to the MSM's attacks on Palin as legitimate rather than as an example of a hopelessly biased media and backing up Palin...he didn't and he didn't look good in allowing Palin to take a sliming, and finally, when Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelburger made McCain's economic views more clear than McCain did, that actually doomed McCain. Joe Wurzelburger actually made clear how badly we really needed a true Conservative with real Conservative convictions.

With a "maverick" Liberal Republican, pretending to be "Reagan's heir" running against a bold, new fresh face, with great rhetoric....the American electorate respondied by voting for the ORIGINAL, rather than the pretender.

The GOP has to come to terms with their debilitating dual personality - the monied "Rockefeller-wing" imposing its disastrous and non-viable views on a Conservative base.

Let's be honest - Nixon ("We're ALL Keynesians now"), George Bush Sr. ("deriding Reaganims as "Voodoo Economics") and George Bush Jr. (spending more, adjusted for inflation, on social spending than even LBJ did) have been disastrous NON-CONSERVATIVES.

When will Conservatives wake up?!

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