Democrats more envious, self-centered, without higher purpose

by Richard Schulman

Two weeks ago Cato, the libertarian think tank, published a major survey of US attitudes on a wide arrange of important questions. Cato’s findings, while prominently featured on its web site, have received little coverage from the left-leaning major national media, and it’s not hard to see why. The statistical portrait that emerges is of a Democratic Party Left that is self-centered, hedonistic, denying that their lives have a higher purpose, and believing that life’s outcomes are largely determined by chance rather than personal agency. Many of its members have unfavorable attitudes toward work and believe that society and government should reward people according to their needs rather than for their work. The rich are envied by the Democratic Left, and this envy drives their urge for punitive taxing of the rich and, especially among socialists, physical violence against them. The Democratic Left is indifferent to the plight of African-American children stuck in failing urban public schools, whose parents desire vouchers so that their children can get a better education at charter or private schools. Conservatives, while hardly perfect, hew much closer to the sturdy attributes of this nation’s 18th century founding generation.

Cato cannot be accused of bias in this survey. It is independent of both major political parties and has been highly critical of many of President Trump’s actions. The survey was produced by Emily Ekins, a Cato research fellow and its Director of Polling. The complete survey may be seen online here. We provide excerpts from it below.

• “Conservatives (58%) are more likely than liberals (39%) to strongly agree their lives have purpose and meaning.”
• “Eight in 10 Americans (80%) agree that “work is its own reward,” including 40% who strongly agree. Some Americans are more enthusiastic than others. Republicans (50%), seniors (50%), and weekly churchgoers (58%) are about 20 points more likely than Democrats (33%), Americans under 30 (31%), and nonchurchgoers (31%) to strongly agree work has inherent value.”
• “Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Republicans say it’s more important to work hard and do what is expected of them. A solid majority (57%) of Democrats say it’s more important to do things in life that give them pleasure and personal satisfaction.”
• “Strong conservatives say the top drivers of wealth are hard work (62%), ambition (47%), self-discipline (45%), and risk-taking (36%). Strong Liberals say the top causes of poverty are discrimination (51%), an unfair economic system (48%), and a lack of educational opportunities (48%), i.e. external forces.
• Strong Conservatives say the top causes of poverty are poor life choices (60%), a lack of work ethic (52%), breakdown of families (47%), and drugs and alcohol (47%) , i.e. they focus on personal agency.”
• 68% of Republicans believe welfare creates dependency; 71% of Democrats think welfare helps people get back on their feet.”
• “Strong liberals are nearly 50 points more likely than strong conservatives to agree that “rewards and benefits in society should be distributed according to what people need” (59% to 18%) and to believe “it’s more important to help meet the needs of people than let people keep what they make” (60% vs. 13%). Conversely, strong conservatives are about 50 points more likely than strong liberals to agree that ‘people should be allowed to keep what they produce’…and to believe ‘society would have fewer problems if people focused more on earning’ and ‘less about how equal everybody is’ (80% vs. 26%).”
• “About 90% of children in elementary and secondary schools attend public schools. But a majority (55%) of Americans would rather send their kids to a private school. Majorities of Latinos (57%), Whites (54%), and Blacks (51%) prefer that their kids receive an education from a private school.”
• “A solid majority (58%) of Americans favor a proposal that would allow parents of children in public school ‘to use a voucher to enroll their children in a private school’ with ‘government helping to pay the tuition’ while 40% oppose this. African Americans (69%), Republicans (68%), households earning less than $20,000 annually (73%), and high school graduates without a college degree (64%) are much more supportive of school vouchers….Half (50%) of Democrats oppose…”
• “About a fifth (17%) of Americans agree that ‘citizens taking violent action against the rich’ is sometimes justified; 82% say it’s never justified. More than a third of strong liberals (36%) and Americans under 30 (35%) and nearly half (47%) of those who have very favorable attitudes toward socialism say violent action against the rich is sometimes justified.”