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POLITICS

57% Would Rather Be Called Good Citizen Than A Patriot

Voters would rather be called a good citizen than a patriot, although they see little difference between the two labels. To be a good citizen, most agree it’s more important to do church and community work than to get involved in politics.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 36% of Likely U.S. Voters think being a patriot is the same as being a good citizen, but 41% disagree. Twenty-two percent (22%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last year at this time, voters were evenly divided when asked if the two were the same thing.

However, 57% would rather be called a good citizen, up five points from the previous survey. Just 27% would prefer being known as a patriot. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

In terms of being a good citizen, two-thirds (66%) of all voters say it’s more important to do volunteer work for church and community organizations than it is to get involved in politics and political campaigns. Only 18% feel that it’s more important to get involved in politics. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

These findings are unchanged from surveys since June 2009.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on May 29-30, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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