Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s, according to the latest poll.
In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2002.
Although the public mood has been darkening since the early days of the war in Iraq, it has taken a new turn for the worse in the last few months, as the economy has seemed to slip into recession. There is now nearly a national consensus that the country faces significant problems.
A majority of nearly every demographic and political group ”” Democrats and Republicans, men and women, residents of cities and rural areas, college graduates and those who finished only high school ”” say the United States is headed in the wrong direction. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the country was worse off than five years ago; just 4 percent said it was better off.
I have several comments about this article.
First, take note of who conducted it. When the NYT-CBS asks what they may think are the right questions, they will probably receive what they think are the right answers. The media has more to do with creating the mood than defining the mood.
Let the banks take the hit for the sub-prime crisis? Yes, let the people who have IRAs containing bank stocks take the hit, or better yet anyone with savings over the FICA limit take the hit.
The stimulus rebate: What if we required everyone under twenty-five who are eligible to get the rebate money to spend it on educational training from institutions which were acceptable in past GI Bills. The money would still trickle down through the economy but would also stimulate productivity of human capital. Use similar focused requirements for people over twenty-five or who would not fit the model.
Yes there are many real problems out there. But like the pot holes on my street, do I blame my city government, or do I blame the past winter weather. Throwing them (politicians) out before they can effectively respond may not be the most reasoned action.
I have approached many polls and never had one answer let alone express an opinion. I would seriously question these “Poll takers”.
What right do they have to go around and take polls from where they have been placed? I think they just make a lot of this up too as I have yet to see a talking poll.
Polls are for flags not for policy.
Did we see polls like this when Bill Clinton was President? No way. To the extent people think the country is on the wrong track, I think the media is 95% responsible for that. And even if it is, the media’s “solution” for the problems seems to be of the expanding and activist, bureaucratic heavy governmental variety. Look at the fruit that approach has (not) borne in Europe……
One of the problems is that this nation is so divided on political direction such that 80% of the people will say the country is on the wrong track. 40% will say it needs to move further left and 40% will say it needs to move further right.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
A local broadcaster in his commentary today, noted that these are the same sort of polls and findings that were “reported” in the last months of George H.W. Bush’s campaign against Bill Clinton, which led to BC’s notorious “It’s the economy, stupid!” comment.
Coincidence? Somehow I doubt it.