Number who say government should promote traditional values falls to all-time low
The survey, released Wednesday, indicates that there have been major changes on attitudes toward the government.
“The biggest: The number of Americans who say that the government should promote traditional values has fallen to an all-time low, a finding that might benefit many Democrats,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
According to the survey, just four in 10 registered voters believe the government should promote traditional values, down from 53% in 2010 and 57% in 2008.
“Between 1993, when CNN began asking that question, and last year, a majority of respondents have always said that the government should promote traditional values. Now, for the first time, more than half say the government should not favor any particular set of values,” adds Holland.
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Um, in Gov-speak doesn’t ‘promote’ = spend your money? No wonder the results tanked.
Limerick on October 3, 2012 at 3:33 PM
And yet they don’t see the correlation, funny.
clearbluesky on October 3, 2012 at 3:34 PM
The government shouldn’t ‘promote’ ANY values.
It should ensure the nation and its interests are protected physically and economically, allow businesses and markets to operate in a free environment, and ensure its citizenry have freedom to do what they want within the confines of the Constitution and laws constructed by our representatives.
Washington Nearsider on October 3, 2012 at 3:35 PM
*Promote* traditional values? No. Pay to clean up the mess when people think they are wiser than their cultural DNA and unintentionally illustrate why said “traditional value” became traditional in the first place? Also no.
Sekhmet on October 3, 2012 at 3:37 PM
This is the main story… the CNN healdine: Big shifts on role of government
It’s Hot Gas here that inserted the traditional values part in their headline. I guess that’s a priority here. Oh yeah, almost forgot the primary.
rhombus on October 3, 2012 at 3:40 PM
hahahahahahahaha
CNN confirms that Dems don’t have any values.
faraway on October 3, 2012 at 3:41 PM
Do a survey that asks:
Do you think we should return to a time when a school student addressed the teachers with a “Yes Ma’am” or “Yes Sir” and were actually afraid of the punishment that waited from mom and dad at home if they didn’t?
You’ll get 99 percent in favor of.
Marcus on October 3, 2012 at 3:41 PM
This. And in doing so, they’ll be…promoting traditional values…if one traditionally values liberty, that is.
Rational Thought on October 3, 2012 at 3:42 PM
What a bunch of idiots they polled.
We are a Republic. We elect our represenatives. They are a reflection of our values. Of course govt will reflect the values of those who engage in elections.
Why else vote ?
Why even debate “social issues” ?
Remember, half of those polled say govt should NOT get involved in social issues.
Jabberwock on October 3, 2012 at 3:44 PM
Are “values” anything like “investments” and “revenue”?
rogerb on October 3, 2012 at 3:44 PM
Maybe it’s a reaction to the non-stop Øbama propaganda machine. Maybe we’re saying this now because we’re sick of this government promoting its own leftist “values” day in and day out. Maybe it’s our way of telling this government to butt the hell out of our lives.
petefrt on October 3, 2012 at 3:44 PM
The life expectancy of a republic is about 200 years and they have been fairly few and far between in human history.
jake-the-goose on October 3, 2012 at 3:45 PM
I had once expected us to be the exception to that phenomenon. Øbama has shown us how fragile our Republic actually is.
petefrt on October 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM
They may say this, but what they are really saying is that they want government to discriminate against instead of for values. It is always a question of values. Laws are values. The only way to not promote values would be to disolve the government completely. The idea of democratic vote for representation is a value.
astonerii on October 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM
They want to push values, alright… just ones that are diametrically opposed to the ones on which our nation was founded. The left wants to promote contraception and birth control, recycling and all that other garbage as virtues. They have gods as well, but those ones had nothing to do with America becoming the great nation it is.
Greek Fire on October 3, 2012 at 3:50 PM
Didn’t read the article or even the snippet posted above the comments section here for the article, huh?
HotGas took the headline for their link as a direct quote from the body of the article. See below:
gravityman on October 3, 2012 at 3:52 PM
This doesn’t bode well for Santorum/Akin 2016.
lester on October 3, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Lincoln destroyed the Republic aspect of the nation when he attacked southern states over Slavery. It was the right thing to do, the wrong way to do it.
Then the republicans saddled us with income tax and popularly voted in Senators because they thought the states would refuse and thus take those items off the Democrats talking points list, failure!.
Then FDR set the final nail in the coffin, leaving the nation on life support only with the welfare state.
LBJ proved that the welfare state was here to stay.
Bush decided to cave into the last nail of the coffin by passing Medicare part D on the Republican branding.
Obama is just a symptom of the death throws, not the cause. He is what you expect when the people have been so corrupted by their own selfish greed and need for slaves.
Oh, you thought slavery was dead? No no no. Now it is the unborn and the young who are slaves to anyone who choses not to work and who get old enough to snap the whip.
Republicans supposedly killed slavery, then ressurected it. First by destroying states rights, and then caving into the notion that Social Security is sacred.
astonerii on October 3, 2012 at 3:54 PM
How high would the numbers be for “government should not promote ALTERNATIVE values,” or…”government should not promote diversity”?
slickwillie2001 on October 3, 2012 at 3:56 PM
I wouldn’t mind government promoting certain values by example. Like, say, keeping your hands out of other peoples’ pockets. Or that there’s ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Or that while you are certainly the most precious, specialest, most perfectest little creature ever to have been spawned, still, nobody owes you a damn thing.
Dirt McGirt on October 3, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Ah no, that’s not what happened. I went back to the CNN article to get their headline. Of course I read it and Hot Gas changed the headline – that was my point.
rhombus on October 3, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Right, but the article suggests the drop in wanting govt to promote traditional values was beneficial to dems which completely ignores the finding of people wanting government to do less overall. In other words, people wanting govt to promote traditional values less goes along with them wanting govt to do less overall which isn’t beneficial to dems.
clearbluesky on October 3, 2012 at 4:08 PM
this is sad because traditional values hold the solutions to many problems the country has. yet, people dismiss it as “imposing morality” and just ignore traditional value supporters. and then people wonder why this country’s so screwed up.
Sachiko on October 3, 2012 at 4:29 PM
Traditional value: Telling the truth.
The government should not promote telling the truth, nor have any laws concerning itself on whether a person is telling the truth or not. No consumer protection laws, no laws against fraud. No punishments for perjury or lying to Congress.
It is a dependable system and the investment of trust by the people that creates a currency as a medium of exchange of value. We can’t even have a laissez faire free market system without some value being placed on the order that allows a currency to develop.
Now, lets have a poll about how many people think through matters pushed on them by pollsters.
Axeman on October 3, 2012 at 4:36 PM
As a bluff old traditionalist myself, let me say that I don’t want the government promoting traditional values, simply because they can’t do anything without spending piles of money they don’t have and ending up with nothing to show for it.
CurtZHP on October 3, 2012 at 4:37 PM
All this shows is that people want the government out of their lives.
Caiwyn on October 3, 2012 at 4:43 PM
Headlines posted by HotGas rarely reflect the actual headline and usually act as a one-line summary of the linked article.
gwelf on October 3, 2012 at 4:43 PM
All – was just making the point that CNN’s headline emphasized the more important fact – that people want gov to do less. Yeah traditional values was in there but that wasn’t emphasized by CNN (for once).
rhombus on October 3, 2012 at 5:07 PM