55% of Americans are pessimistic about the direction of the country, in significant increase from May
The vast majority of Americans are not optimistic about the direction of the country under President Joe Biden, a new poll has found, six months into his administration.
“A majority — 55% — of the public say they are pessimistic about the direction of the country, a marked change from the roughly one-third (36%) that said the same in an ABC News/Ipsos poll published May 2,” ABC News reported. “In the early May survey, Americans were more optimistic than pessimistic by a 28-percentage point margin. Optimism is now under water by 10 points. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, fewer than half — 45% — now report feeling optimistic about the way things are going, a significant drop from about two-thirds (64%) in the May poll.”
The poll also found further negative findings, reporting that a staggering 61 per cent of Americans disapproved of Biden’s handling of the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. A further 61 per cent disapproved of his handling of gun violence, which has skyrocketed across the country. 58 per cent of Americans said that they disapproved of the way Joe Biden is handling crime.
A separate poll conducted by Gallup released new numbers last week showing that Biden is headed in the wrong direction, scoring his lowest approval numbers yet. Gallup reported:
Biden’s latest job approval rating of 50% is down from 56% in June. Before this month, his ratings had not shown meaningful variation during his time in office, and the current figure marks the lowest measured for him to date.
The new rating is from a July 6-21 Gallup poll, which also finds that 45% of U.S. adults disapprove of Biden’s performance and 5% do not have an opinion. It comes at a time when U.S. progress in fighting the coronavirus has stalled, with vaccination rates slowing and case levels now rising. The economic recovery continues, with unemployment declining and stock market values near record highs. But consumers are paying higher prices for gas and other goods. Biden has also struggled to deliver on his promise of greater bipartisanship, although negotiations on an infrastructure bill continue in the Senate.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ ratings have also suffered, showing that only 45 per cent of respondents held a favourable view toward the veep. 47 per cent held an unfavourable view, while another 5 per cent said they had no opinion, according to Newsweek.
That polling aligned fairly closely with a separate survey conducted by The Economist/YouGov from July 10 to 13. In that poll, 44 percent of voters said they viewed Harris somewhat or very favorably. But nearly half (48 percent) said they had a very or somewhat unfavorable view of the vice president. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent.
2024 Student Journalism Conference
Applications are now open for The Democracy Fund's third annual Student Journalism Conference. This is a one-of-a-kind, all-expenses-paid opportunity for young aspiring journalists in Canada!
TDF Student Journalism Conference 2024Don't Get Censored
Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.
Don't Get Censored
Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.