Pastors Jim and Marie Watt
“THE LEFT’S IDEOLOGICAL UNACCEPTABILITY”
(From “Real Change” by Newt Gingrich)
It is hard for our elites to understand how distant they are from the average American in values. In the university faculty lounges, the Hollywood cocktail parties, the left-wing activist groups, and the newsrooms and editorial boards of most of the elite media there is such a unanimity of belief that it is impossible for them to realize that they collectively form a left-wing enclave in a hugely center-right nation.
In early 2007, I created a nonpartisan organization called American Solutions in order to break partisan gridlock and create commonsense solutions. At American Solutions, we decided to listen carefully to the American people about their values and their understanding of what would work and what they favored. In the summer of 2007, we analyzed a series of six national surveys (The full results are available at www.americansolutions.com).
To understand the gap between the Left and the American people, consider the following:
85% believe it is very important for a group or organization in this country to pursue the goal of helping defend America and its allies.
75% believe it is very important for a group or organization in the country to pursue the goal of defeating America’s enemies.
93% believe al Qaeda poses a serious threat.
85% believe Iran poses a serious threat.
79% would support the death penalty for someone caught and convicted of carrying out a terrorist attack in the United States.
83% support the establishment of clear laws making it a crime to advocate acts of terrorism or violent conduct or the killing of innocent people in the United States.
77% support the closing down of terrorist Web sites at home and abroad using the techniques of computer warfare.
65% favor abolishing the death tax.
48% favor abolishing the capital gains tax (41% oppose; this is included because no one on the left could imagine that without any argument being made and any campaign being waged there are already enough investors in the United States to have a plurality favoring abolishing the capital gains tax).
70% favor a tax incentive for companies headquartered in the United States.
61% favor the option of a single income tax rate of 17%.
74% favor the single rate of 17 percent for corporations.
68% see a direct link to making American corporations more competitive in the United States so they will not move jobs overseas.
54% believe the wealthiest should pay the same proportion of their income as everyone else, while only 43% believe they should pay more. This undermines one of the Left’s happiest battle cries of “tax the rich.”
The Left is distant from the average American on national security and economics, but the gap becomes cataclysmic when the topic turns to culture and religion.
89% believe religion and morality are important to them and their families.
79% believe religion and morality are important to the country.
87% approve of the reference to “the Creator” in the Declaration of Independence; 6% strongly disapprove.
78% approve of the Ten Commandments appearing in courthouses across America; 12% strongly disapprove.
81% appose removing crosses and other such monuments from public parks and other public property; 8 percent strongly approve.
94% approve of a moment of silence allowing children to pray to themselves if they want to in public schools; 3% strongly disapprove.
90% approve of a Christmas tree or menorah being placed on public property during the holiday season; 5% strongly disapprove.
This is not just a matter of cultural values. The average American absolutely believes that these values make a difference in the defining who we are and the freedoms we enjoy.
84% agree that references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Declaration of Independence are important because they make clear that certain rights can’t be taken away by the government; only 9% strongly disagree.
93% believe that it is still important to acknowledge that our rights come from our Creator today; only 3% disagree.
We have a choice between two hypothetical candidates, one who believes that most of the problems our country faces are because America is no longer as religious and moral as it once was, and a second candidate who believes that religion and morality have little to do with America’s problems and that our problems are a result of changes in the economy, war, public education, and other issues; the American people choose the candidate of religion and morality by65% to 30%.This choice is rooted in a deeper understanding of how relevant our Founding Fathers and their values are to twenty-first-century America.
To reinforce this belief in traditional American beliefs, values, and history, consider the results of a choice between a candidate who believes that statements regarding religion and morality made by the Founding Fathers don’t have much to do with America today, and a candidate who believes that statements regarding religion and morality made by the Founding Fathers are just as important today as they were two hundred years ago. The American people favor a candidate who respects the lessons of the Founding Fathers by 86% to 12% over the secular candidate.
Given a choice between a candidate who believes the best way to protect religious freedom is to protect all religious references and symbols, including those on public buildings, lands, and documents, and a candidate who believes the best way to ensure religious freedom is to remove all religious reference and symbols, Americans by 81% to 14% pick the candidate who would protect religious symbols.
I strongly agree with those who believe America’s roots are to be found in the endowment of our Creator. I wrote Rediscovering God in America (also now available as a DVDwalking tour of Washington that my wife, Callista, and I co-host) to prove that from the Declaration of Independence (“we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights”) to the Constitution (signed in “the Year of our Lord”) to the great leaders of America, most Americans are right and those who insist on anti-religious bigotry are simply wrong.
Yet if a massive majority (averaging between 80 and 90% support on question after question after question) recognizes the important role of religion and morality in our public life, then why does this majority keep losing to an anti-religious Left with a hard core of only 3 to 9%? The answer is found in the deliberate strategy of the Left in using the law and the courts to impose on America what they could never win in elections, which I address in more detail in Chapter Thirteen.
NOTE: Well, there you have it! The above is from Chapter Three, “An Unreformed Left” pp. 37-42. It is taken from Newt Gingrich’s latest book published this year entitled, “REAL CHANGE” – From the World that Fails to the World that Works.
Both Marie and I are fed up in our country with “The Tyranny of the Minority” – the 3 to 9% who use the deliberate strategy of the law and the courts to impose on America what they could never win in elections.
Every thinking, concerned and responsible person in America should purchase or check out from the Library and read Newt Gingrich’s latest book. It has the savor of Reality. It has the savor of Hope. It has the savor of practical solutions to turn our country around and rescue it from the bigoted tyranny of the hard-core 3-9%.
Jim & Marie Watt
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