In terms of bringing people together, 48% of voters nationwide believe the better policy approach is giving more individual freedom for people to establish their own guidelines for social interaction. However, a Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 34% disagree and believe it would be better to have more government involvement to establish fair rules and guidelines for social interaction.
Other data from the survey showed that 93% believe it is important for our leaders to focus on things that bring people together. Additionally, 73% believe that America’s founding ideals of freedom, equality, and self-governance are a good foundation for bringing people together and unifying the nation.
On the policy side, there is a significant generation gap. By a 52% to 29% margin, older voters (45+) believe allowing more freedom is the way to bring people together. Voters under 45 are evenly divided–42% say more freedom and 40% more government rules.
Republicans strongly prefer more freedom as the answer. Independent voters, by a 47% to 29% margin, agree.
However, a narrow plurality of Democrats take the opposite view. Forty-four percent (44%) of those in Joe Biden’s party think more government rules governing social interactions are needed. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Democrats prefer more freedom.
There is an interesting racial divide among Democrats. By a 47% to 36% margin, Black Democrats think more freedom is the answer. However, by a 46% to 35% margin, other Democrats believe more rules are the better approach.
Among all voters, there is virtually no racial divide on this question.
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Methodology
The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted by Scott Rasmussen using a mixed mode approach from August 20-22, 2020. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Most respondents were contacted online or via text while 142 were contacted using automated phone polling techniques. Certain quotas were applied to the overall sample and lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population.
