Poll: Is America a 'Success'? Almost Half Say 'No'

Surprise, surprise -- according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey, nearly half the public thinks we’ve lost our way:

If America’s founders came back today, would they be impressed or disappointed?

A new Rasmussen Reports shows that 36% of American Adults think the Founding Fathers would consider the United States a success. But a plurality (46%) believes the Founders - a group that generally includes George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, among others - would view the nation as a failure instead. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Well, that’s a rather depressing thought.

In fairness, however, as the Founders were no doubt aware of at the time, no self-described "democracy" had ever not descended into tyranny or dictatorship. As John Adams once put it: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

So why, then, shouldn’t ours? Perhaps in time it will -- but I do not believe we’re there yet. All things considered, the Founders’ idealistic vision of a forward-looking, sovereign, and self-governing nation has endured remarkably well over the centuries. It survived a Constitutional Crisis, a bloody civil war, a Great Depression, and Adolf Hitler. And while the tragedy in Ferguson, MO reminds all of us that problems exist in this country -- problems that perhaps cannot be resolved anytime soon -- now is not the time for pessimism or despair.

As the president himself recently said: "I have witnessed [enormous progress] in my own life," he intoned. "To deny that progress, I think, is to deny America's capacity for change."

All of which is to say I stand proudly and unshakably in the “36 percent” camp.

I’m not consigning the nation to damnation just yet.

Poll: Is America a 'Success'? Almost Half Say 'No'

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