GOP Confidence in Country’s Direction Up in New Pos of independents also up, but only 7 percent of Democrats are satisfied with where nation headed under Trump
GOP Confidence in Country’s Direction Up in New Poll, Dems Still Doom and Gloom
Views of independents also up, but only 7 percent of Democrats are satisfied with where nation headed under Trump
America’s economy is booming, the Islamic State’s caliphate is a smoking ruin, and U.S. workers will soon start seeing fatter paychecks, thanks to the tax cut negotiated by President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders that became law in December.
But don’t try telling that to Democrats, who see nothing but gloom for the United States. A Gallup poll released Monday shows just 7 percent of Democratic voters are satisfied with the direction of the country. That is the lowest mark of Trump’s presidency. The share of Democrats holding positive views of the country’s direction had fluctuated between 9 and 16 percent since Trump’s inauguration.
Republicans, meanwhile, have gone in the opposite direction. Gallup’s poll found 61 percent are satisfied with where the country is headed, the highest share of GOP voters since February 2007, before the financial collapse that triggered the Great Recession.
“Current GOP sentiment about the direction of the U.S. is a major turnaround for a party that suffered depressed levels of satisfaction earlier in the year after a number of legislative setbacks and various challenges to Trump’s White House in its first year,” wrote Gallup analyst Justin McCarthy.
Independents also view the direction of the country more favorably, with 31 percent rating it positively. That is up from a 2017 low of 20 percent.
The survey, conducted from January 2 through January 7, found that 29 percent of Americans overall are satisfied with the nation’s direction. That is on the high end of where Americans have fallen on that question during Trump’s tenure. They have ranged from a low of 21 percent to a high of 32 percent.
Michael Johns, president and executive director of Tea Party Community, a national group, said the poll question is open-ended enough for people to view it as a query as to how they feel about Trump.
“It’s also very much a product of the fact that people of the far-Left persuasion have fallen into the habit of reading self-fulfilling outlets that have berated Trump,” he said.
Johns said that anyone getting all of his news from CNN would “almost wonder whether the president was going to make it to the end of the week.”
The skewed coverage impacts people’s views of the country’s direction, Johns said.
“They really haven’t been exposed to the objective metrics of the direction of the country,” he said.
The intensity of Democrats’ negativity overwhelms the intensity of positive views among Republicans. Some 25 percent of Republicans rate themselves as “very satisfied” with the direction of the country. This compares with less than half of 1 percent of Democrats. Meanwhile, 68 percent of Democrats are “very dissatisfied” with the country’s direction.
Majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents, however, express satisfaction with how things are going in their local communities and the states where they live, although Republicans generally are more satisfied.
McCarthy wrote for Gallup that Trump will have a relatively unified and energized Republican base when he gives his first State of the Union address later this month.
“Overall, future satisfaction may be driven by how Trump’s actions ultimately affect Americans’ daily lives,” he wrote. “His tax bill, for example, could end up boosting Americans’ spirits if it results in more money in their pockets. But as of now, Americans haven’t become more positive about this bill since its passage.”
PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached atbrendan.kirby@lifezette.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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