Americans' Satisfaction with the Way Country Is Going Plummets to Lowest Level Under Biden
The number of Americans who say they are satisfied with the direction the country is headed has hit its lowest level since President Joe Biden took office in January, according to a new poll.
Amid mounting crises at home and abroad, respondents to a recent Gallup survey answered that Biden’s presidency has America headed in the wrong direction.
The poll, which was released on Tuesday, found that only 23 percent of Americans are satisfied “with the way things are going in the U.S.”
Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. has fallen to 23%, the lowest point since President Joe Biden took office. https://t.co/f9eu18D8CU
— GallupNews (@GallupNews) August 24, 2021
The number of satisfied Americans sat at 30 percent in July and at 35 percent in June. The number of Americans polled by Gallup who said they were satisfied with the direction of the country peaked, thus far, for the year in May.
In that month, 36 percent of those polled by Gallup reported the direction of the country to be satisfactory.
“The Aug. 2-17 Gallup poll was largely conducted prior to the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s return to power, therefore curbing any potential effect that might have had on Americans’ views,” Gallup noted.
“However, throughout the poll’s field period, the U.S. continued to see a strong resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic due to the highly transmissible delta variant,” the pollster added. “By the end of the poll, many hospitals in the U.S. were at or near capacity — as they had been at the height of the pandemic last winter — and Americans were increasingly concerned.”
Those polled who identified as Democrats were more likely than Republicans and independents to cite the coronavirus pandemic as the country’s most pressing issue. Forty-one percent of Democrats cited the coronavirus as the country’s biggest problem.
Twenty-four percent of independents cited COVID as the biggest issue, while 12 percent of Republicans answered the same way.
Republicans, at 24 percent, cited the government as the country’s biggest problem. Another 23 percent of Republicans cited immigration as the country’s biggest issue.
With regard to political affiliation overall, 39 percent of Democrats told Gallup they are happy with the direction the country is headed. That number was down from 63 percent in May.
Only 20 percent of independents answered they were satisfied, while just five percent of Republicans answered the same way. Satisfaction with the direction of the country was down with both groups.
The economy was the chief concern for only eight percent of those polled.
The number of Americans who cited race relations as their area of greatest concern fell from nine percent in July to four percent in August.
“Not long ago, Americans largely thought the worst of the pandemic was behind them, and they were more satisfied with the direction of the country than they had been at any time since March 2020 when the pandemic began,” Gallup noted. “Now, as the delta variant continues to spread and COVID-19 cases are surging, Americans’ satisfaction has declined.”
“Biden’s honeymoon is over, and as he continues to respond to the pandemic, he is also facing the first foreign policy crisis of his presidency. As long as these challenges continue and Democrats and some independents are concerned, satisfaction is likely to remain low,” the pollster’s Megan Brenan concluded.
The Gallup poll was conducted from Aug. 2 – 17 among 1,006 random American adults. The poll reported a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.
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