11% of US Likely Voters Say Communism Better Than American Capitalism. 77% Disagree, 13% Unsure

A telephone poll taken March 12-13 of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters by Rasmussen Reports shows 11% think communism is morally superior to the American system of politics and economics.

The good news is that 77% disagree. In their view, the U.S. system is “morally superior.” The not-so-good news is that another 13% are not sure.

(Agreed. The percentages add up to 101%, but who’s counting? It’s a poll.)

In the end, the poll really shows encouraging news:

Communism calls for the elimination of all private property with everything owned in common, and voters even more emphatically reject it as an economic theory. Eighty-seven percent (87%) say, in practical terms, free market economies work better than communist economies. Only four percent (4%) say communist economies work better.

Similarly, 80% of voters say the U.S. system of politics and economics is better for middle class workers than communism is. Ten percent (10%) say communism is a better option, and another 10% are undecided. …

Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters view communism as a failed ideology. Twelve percent (12%) say that’s not true. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure.

Voters ages 18 to 29 are much less critical of communism as an ideology than their elders are. Conservative voters believe more strongly than moderates and liberals that communism is a failed ideology, but majorities of all three groups share that view.

In terms of world history, 85% of all voters nationwide believe that the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe was at least somewhat important, with 71% who describe it as Very Important. Only eight percent (8%) say it was not very or not at all important.

While 87% of Mainstream voters rate the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe as important in terms of history, nearly one-in-three Political Class voters (32%) view it as unimportant historically. Generally speaking, however, there’s little difference of opinion between the two groups when it comes to comparing the U.S. economic and political system with communism.

Not to mention that Communist regimes have the awkward tendency to eliminate dissenters from their ranks.

In December 2006, blogger Scott Manning wrote in Communist Body Count: “The following estimates represent citizens killed or starved to death by their own Communist governments since 1918. These numbers do not include war dead. The governments are sorted by body count (highest to lowest). All numbers are mid-estimates.”

Here’s just the Top Ten:

1. People’s Republic of China: 73,237,000 (1949-2006 and counting).

2. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: 58,627,000 (1922-1991).

3. Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic: 3,284,000 (1918-1922).

4. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: 3,163,000 (1948-2006 and counting).

5. Cambodia: Body Count: 2,627,000 (1975-1987).

6. Democratic Republic of Afghanistan: 1,750,000 (1978-1992).

7. Vietnam: 1,670,000 (1975-2006 and counting).

8. People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: 1,343,610 (1974-1991).

9. Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: 1,072,000 (1945-1992).

10. Chinese Soviet Republic: 700,000 (1931-1934).

Other than the numbers of deaths for China and the USSR, this is chump change!

In a 1982 interview, FBI informant Larry Grathwohl related he had previously participated in a discussion with Weather Undergrounders Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Mark Rudd, and Jeff Jones (who need no introduction), and many others, who seriously stated that people who refused to accept Communism would be sent to reeducation centers. Of these, they said an estimated 25 million people would be eliminated.

Perhaps Rasmussen could provide these fine folks with a list of telephone numbers for the 11% who said Communism was better than the current U.S. economic and political system. They sound like recruits.

The other 10-20% who were often not sure sound like possible converts.

In spite of the belief by some that it’s too late, that a revolution has already happened while the rest of us were sleeping, there is no time to sound like a defeatist. If you’ve given up — and you know who you are — then the Communists have already won.

I for one will not quit until they march me off to the reeducation camp, and even then I will not quit until I become a statistic on the mortality list.