While likely U.S. voters admire the Constitution, most Democrats believe the document is tainted by racism and sexism.
Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute released their findings from a new national phone and online survey last week.
Eighty-two percent of likely voters have a favorable view of the Constitution, including 58 percent who have a very favorable view. Just 14 percent have an unfavorable view of the Constitution.
Eighty-nine percent of Republicans, 80 percent of unaffiliated voters and 74 percent of Democrats have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of the Constitution.
While Democrats hold a generally favorable view of the Constitution, 57 percent of them agree the Constitution is “rooted in racism” and 64 percent think the Constitution is a “sexist document that gives men advantages over women.”
Forty-nine percent of Democrats believe the Constitution “should be mostly or completely rewritten.”
The rest of the voters overwhelmingly reject those statements.
“As Americans, we are fortunate to live in a land where the Constitution ensures the government cannot infringe upon our basic liberties,” said Heartland Institute senior editor Chris Talgo, remarking on the “cognitive dissonance” among some voter groups who “overwhelmingly have favorable opinions in general about the Constitution” while simultaneously believing it is rooted in racism and sexism.
“The Constitution has served as the bedrock for liberty in America for more than 230 years,” said Heartland Institute research fellow Donald Kendal. “To see these poll results, where half of Democrats want to see the Constitution ‘mostly or completely rewritten,’ is disheartening. President Calvin Coolidge once said, ‘To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.’ It is a shame that half of self-identified Democrats want to throw that privilege away because of their disdain for the current perceived political landscape.”
