Although the majority of Americans reject critical race theory, Democrats overwhelmingly support it.
The Economist/YouGov poll released this week showed that 58 percent of Americans polled find the controversial curriculum somewhat or very unfavorable. Only 38 percent said they viewed critical race theory favorably.
However, 86 percent of Democrats said they had a “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” view toward the extreme ideology, compared with only 6 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of Independents. The poll also found that only 37 percent of Americans thought that critical race theory was good for America, while 55 percent said it was bad for America and 8 percent said that it was neither good nor bad for America.
Backlash to the far-left ideology has been building for months as the ideology seemingly picked up significant momentum in the months following the violent riots that broke out across the United States last year in response to the death of George Floyd. Efforts to combat the racist ideology have been led by Republicans at the state and local levels and by parents and refugees of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds, many of whom are not white.
Senior Manhattan Institute Fellow Chris Rufo, one of the leading activists against critical race theory, wrote a lengthy piece about what the theory is, where it came from and how to combat it.
“To explain critical race theory, it helps to begin with a brief history of Marxism,” he wrote. ”Originally, the Marxist Left built its political program on the theory of class conflict. Karl Marx believed that the primary characteristic of industrial societies was the imbalance of power between capitalists and workers. The solution to that imbalance, according to Marx, was revolution: the workers would eventually gain consciousness of their plight, seize the means of production, overthrow the capitalist class and usher in a new socialist society.”
This week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) compared critical race theory to Jim Crow laws enacted by Democrats in the 19th Century.
“America is not a racist country. America must reject critical race theory for the simple reason [that] state-sponsored racism is wrong and always will be,” McCarthy said on the House floor. “It was wrong when it was segregated lunch counters of Jim Crow, and it was wrong when it was segregated classrooms of critical race theory.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice